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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  M580 

(716)  872-4503 


1 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHIVI/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Instituta  for  Historical  IMicroraproductions 


Inttitut  Canadian  da  microraproductions  historiquas 


1980 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notas/Notas  tachniquas  at  bibliographiquaa 


Tha  Instituta  hat  attamptad  to  obtain  tha  baat 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Faaturas  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  tha  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


D 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couleur 


|~~|    Covers  damaged/ 


Couverture  endommagia 


□    Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restauria  et/ou  pelliculAe 


D 


D 
D 
D 


D 


Cover  title  missing/ 

Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 


I      I    Coloured  maps/ 


Cartes  g6ographiques  en  couleur 


□    Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (I.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 


D 


Coloured  platat*  and/or  illustrations/ 
Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 


Bound  with  other  material/ 
Reli6  avec  d'autres  documents 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  reliure  serr6e  peut  causer  de  j'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  int6rieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certainas  pages  blanches  ajout^es 
lors  d'une  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  6tait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  4t6  filmies. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  suppldmentaires: 


L'Institut  a  microfilm*  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  At*  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
da  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-Atre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique.  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  mAthoda  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiquAs  ci-dessous. 


I — I   Coloured  pages/ 


□ 


Pages  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommagAes 

Pages  restored  and/oi 

Pages  restauries  et/ou  pellicul6es 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxe( 
Pages  dAcolor^es,  tachet^es  ou  piqu6es 

Pages  detached/ 
Pages  d^tachdes 

Showthrough/ 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

Quality  indgale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  materit 
Comprend  du  materiel  suppldmentaire 


I — I  Pages  damaged/ 

I — I  Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 

I — I  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 

I     I  Pages  detached/ 

I      I  Showthrough/ 

I      I  Quality  of  print  varies/ 

I      I  Includes  supplementary  material/ 


□    Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Mition  disponible 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  6t6  film^es  &  nouveau  de  fa^on  d 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  fiimi  au  taux  de  reduction  indiquA  ci-dessous. 

18X  22X 


10X 


14X 


26X 


30X 


y 


12X 


16X 


20X 


24X 


28X 


32X 


ails 

du 

idifier 

une 

lage 


The  copy  filmed  here  has  been  reproduced  thanka 
to  the  generoaity  of: 

Library  of  the  Pubiic 
Archives  of  Canada 

The  images  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
of  the  original  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
filming  contract  specifications. 


L'exemplaire  f ilmt  f ut  reproduit  grAce  A  la 
gAnArositA  de: 

La  bibliothdque  des  Archives 
pubiiques  du  Canada 

Lea  images  suivantes  ont  6tA  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  nettetA  de  l'exemplaire  film6,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 


Original  opies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginnini^  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


Les  exemplalres  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  ImprimAe  sont  filmis  en  commenpant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernlAre  pege  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  salon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplalres 
originaux  sont  film6s  en  commen^ant  par  la 
premiere  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernlAre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  -^  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  y  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 


Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaltra  sur  la 
derniire  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  I 
cas:  le  symbols  — ^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbols  V  signifie  "FIN  ". 


Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  dtre 
filmAs  A  des  taux  de  reduction  diff^rents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seui  cliche,  il  est  filmi  6  partir 
de  Tangle  supArieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  nicessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  m^thode. 


rrata 
o 


jelure, 
1  d 


□ 


32X 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

3port  f{oi)aI 

I  Warrant  You! 


■T'a'cljth  A7(.'//A 


THOMAS   MARTINDALE 


PRICK,  OXK  DOLLAR. 


COPYRIGHTED  1897 

BY 

THOMAS    MARTINDALE. 


PRESS   OF 
H.     W.    SHAW    CO. 

PHIIAOELPHIA. 


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THCMAS    MAR"!  l^  f    '  ,  '. 


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PMi;  *eti  rMi» 


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THOMAS   MARTI\DALE. 


i 


...(onteots 


A jjoloyetii" 5 

I  >e(licati()ii 6 

Mooschcad  I,akt* 7 

Cupid  in  the  Wilderness i^ 

Calling  the  Moose ly 

An  rnexpectc<l  Treat 26 

Killing;  the  Carihon 29 

More  of  the  Moose 34 

The  (Ircat   Northwest 41 

North   Dakota  8^ 

Hrant  Shooting .S8 

The  yuaint  Cai)e  Codders 94 

The  Wrecker g^ 

A   Wary   Hird 104 

A  Glimpse  at   the  "White" no 

A  I'ij^ht  to  the  Death 120 

A   Lost  Man  and  a  Wonndcd  Moose  12s 

Adv:  .itures  of  a  Deer  Ilnnter  in   Maine i^^ 

A   Parting  Shot ,46 


APOLOQETIC. 

IF  it  he  true-  that  "  ^ood  wine  net-ds  no  hnsh,"  it  on^-ht 
to  he  irne  that  a  Rood  hook  mods  no  ai)oh)j;y.    "  Hut." 
my  reader  may  ask.  "is  yonr  hook  a  Kood  one.  or  <U)es 
Its  j-ocxhiess  rest  oidy  on  the  modest  opinion  of  its 
author.'"    Dear  reader.  I  may  safelvsav.  with.mt  stretch- 
ing; the  hounds  of  modesty,  that  any  hook  whose  aim  is 
to  lengthen  and  make  hetter  the  hfeoftlie  American  hus- 
mess  man  and  to  show  him  the  most  enjovahle  wav  to  do 
It.  must  ))e  a  K0...1  honk.      ••  J^ut  whv  tlie  Americaii  husi- 
ness  man  rather  than  .-ni..ther>-     Ht-cause  lie  is  tlie  man 
whose   manner  of    life,    affords    the   hroadesl    room    for 
improvement.     Ik-  is   the   man  who  in  his  fierce  chase 
ill  er  tlie  almiKhly  dollar  forgets  that  there  are  such  tliiiiKs 
as  heidth  and  happiness  and  pi-rsonal  comfort,  or  if  he 
rememhers  them  it  is  only  to  see  that  tliev  step  to  the  side 
and  not  stand  in  the  way  of  his  chase.     To  stop  for  rest 
or    recreation  would    he   extravagance,   especiallv  as    he 
knows  no    need    of  t-ilher.      A   knowledge  of  the  need, 
however,  is  sure  to  come,  and  when  it  does  he  niav  thank 
his  stars  if  it  hasn't  come  too  late.     Vou  cannot  teach  an 
old  doK  new  tricks  nor  can  y.m  disentangle  the  liahits  of 
a  life  time  from  their  worry  and  care  and  weave  the  worn 
threads  into  youthful  toj.;gery. 
Too  late  I     Too  late  ! 

I  am  aware  of  the  dangers  that  lie  in  wait  for  the 
hook-writer.  "Oh.  that  mine  adversary  had  written  a 
book  I-  was  the  burden  of  Jobs  prayer,  3,500  vears  ago, 
and  it  IS  doubtful  whether  the  roll  of  passing  centuries 
has  as  yet  flattened  out  the  peril.  Flattering  myself, 
however,  that  I  am  no  man's  adversary.  I  will  lake  the 
risk  and  launch  my  little  volume,  hoping  for  it  fair 
weather,  favoring  gales,  and  a  broad  harbor  from  which 
to  spread  its  wholesome  freight  wherever  it  may  do  the 
"'^"*  S"'^^^-  TIIOS.  M. 


TO  A.  B.  F.  KINNEY. 


*7f     FRIEND  of  thirty  years'  acquaintance,  and  the  best 

LY     all-around  sportsman   I   have   ever   met;    a  man 

^    ^^equally  expert  with  rifle,  gun  or  flyrod ;  who  lias 

killed  game  of  every  species  that  the  American 

Continent  affords,  from  the  grizzly  bear  to  the  ubiquitous 

rabbit,  from  the  wild  goose  and  its  rival  in  migratory  flight 

— the  mysterious  brant — to  the  solitude-loving  woodcock, 

and  who  is  besides  what  the  world  affectionately  calls  "a 

royal  good  fellow.  "     To  him  this  book    is   respectfully 

dedicated  by  his  sincere  friend, 

Thomas  Martindai.e. 


MOOSEHEAD  LAKE. 


Tliis  way  lies  the  j;i""i-'' 

— King  Heniy  VI. 

WE  left  Philadelphia  Saturday  night,  September  12th, 
at  6.50,  l)y  the  Boston  express.  It  was  hot,  close  and 
miserably  uncomfortable.  The  sleeping  car  felt  like 
an  oven  and  we  turned  in  before  New  York  was  reached, 
as  that  was  the  coolest  thing  to  do.  Sunday  in  Boston 
was  rainy,  raw  and  cold.  On  Monday  morning,  in  Ban- 
gor, we  had  to  put  on  heavy  flannels  and  get  out  overcoats. 
It  was  election  day  in  Maine ;  yet,  although  it  was 
expected  that  the  Republican  ticket  would  be  elected  by 
30,000  majority,  we  saw  no  excitement  along  the  railroad 
in  our  ride  from  Bangor  to  Greenville,  at  the  head  of  Moose- 
head  Lake.  No  bands,  no  men  around  the  polling  places, 
with  badges  on.  An  occasional  flag  floated  in  the  frosty 
air  but  that  was  all.  Yet  there  was  a  silent  unseen  some- 
thing betokening  an  enormous  Republican  vote.  (We're 
in  the  woods  now  and  lune  heard  nothing  of  the  result  as 
yet.)  During  our  ride  in  the  car  a  prophetic  native  sitting 
behind  us  broke  loose  in  this  fashion:  "Darned  if  I 
wouldn't  bet  a  dollar  that  the  State  would  go  u-nan- 
i-mus  for  Powers,  if  it  weren't  for  the  fac"  that  some 
ornery  cuss  would  hear  of  my  bet  and  go  and  vote  for 
t'other  fellow,  just  so  as  I  would  lose  it." 

7 


There  are  a  number  of  little  steamboats  oti  Moose- 
head  Lake,  which  ply  backwards  and  forwards,  carrying 
freight  and  passengers.  Upon  a  time-card,  a  sort  of 
"free  and  easy,  go  as  you  please  schedule,"  we  were  told 
our  boat  would  leave  promptly  at  six  in  the  morning.  So 
on  Tuesday  we  were  up  before  five  o'clock  to  see  to  our 
stores,  baggage  and  hunting  outfit  being  aboard  on  time, 
had  breakfast  in  a  hurry,  first  asking  the  landlord  to  tell 
the  captain  of  the  boat  that  we  would  be  aboard  at  six  and 
not  to  start  without  us.  At  six  we  were  pacing  the  deck 
of  the  steamer,  listening  to  the  captain  and  pilot  swearing 
at  the  engineer,  who  had  not  yet  put  in  an  appearance, 
and  the  boat  couldn't  well  go  without  the  engineer.  Half 
after  six  came  and  we  still  waited  ;  the  whistle  was  blown 
repeatedljs  but  no  sign  of  the  man  who  handled  the  stop- 
cocks. At  eighteen  minutes  to  .seven  the  "knight  of  the 
stopcocks"  was  seen  leisurely  coming  down  a  hillside  as 
calmly  as  if  he  were  an  hour  ahead  of  time.  Then  we 
made  a  start  and  crossed  to  another  landing,  where  we 
took  in  tow  a  scow  with  four  horses,  a  partj'  of  ladies  and 
some  lumbermen .  At  a  quarter  to  eight  we  were  off  for  the 
"Northeast  Carry,"  where  we  arrived  about  an  hour  and 
a  half  late,  which  hour  and  a  half  caused  us  an  exciting 
time. 

Northeast  Carry  is  so  called  because  it  is  a  road  or 
"  carry  "  at  the  northeast  end  of  the  lake ;  it  is  two  miles 
long,  and  the  other  end  of  the  "carry  "  lands  you  on  the 
banks  of  the  Penobscot  River.  As  we  were  loading  our 
canoes  a  party  landed  from  down  the  river.  In  the 
centre  of  one  of  their  canoes  a  lady  was  seated  on  a 
throne-like    chair    covered    with    costly    Persian    fugs. 


PENOBSCOT  hiver;  loading  ca\ofs  for  a  trip  into  the  Wilderness. 

Luxurious  air  cushions  supported  "  my  lady's  "  back,  and 
formed  a  rest  for  her  feet.  An  oriental  robe,  tinted  with 
all  the  hues  of  the  rainbow,  was  gracefully  thrown  around 
her  dainty  limbs,  mingling  its  colors  with  those  of  the 
autumn  leaves  which  were  strung  in  garlands  about  the 
bow  of  the  boat.  A  pretty  scene  indeed,  but  yet  imperfect. 
It  needed  a  dusky  Indian  maiden,  with  no  clothes  on,  to 
speak  of,  waving  a  peacock  fan.  Then  the  picture  might 
pass,  on  a  pinch,  for  that  of  the  proud  Cleopatra  as  she 
sailed  up  the  Cydnus  to  tickle  the  fancy  and  catch  the 
heart  of  her  love -sick  Antony. 

Precisely  at  two  o'clock  Tuesday,  the  fifteenth,  we 
paddled  away  from  Northeast  Carry.  We  had  a  glorious 
run  to  the  '  'half-way  house, ' '  (ten  miles  down ) .  The  river 
was  bewitchiogly  beautiful .  The  first  frosts  had  delicately 
colored  the  leaves  of  the  maple  and  beech,  while  the 
great  waving  masses  of  ferns  that  fringe  the  river's  edge 


had  chinged  their  greens  for  various  shades  of  yellow 
and  brown,  and  spreading  their  dainty  texture  along  the 
banks  seemed  anxious  to  show  what  nature  could  do  in 
the  way  of  embroidery. 

Everything  looked  radiant  and  happy — save  our 
three  guides  who  were  taciturn  and  troubled.  The  reason 
was  plain.  It  was  half- past  four  in  the  afternoon  when 
we  reached  the  "half-way  house."  We  had  stnted  that 
we  desired  particularly  to  be  at  Chesuncook  Lake  (twenty 
miles  down  the  river)  that  night,  and  there  would  have 
been  no  trouble  in  doing  the  journey  in  daylight  if  the 
steamer  Comet  had  only  been  more  prompt  in  starting 
from  Greenville.  Now,  below  us,  six  miles  down,  is  a 
great  stretch  of  rapids  called  the  "Rocky  Rips,"  a  mile 
and  a  half  long.  Belo'-  these  rapids  come  the  Pine 
Stream  Falls,  half  a  mile  long. 

Our  three  canoes  were  deeply  loaded.  Should  we 
or  should  we  not  risk  the  run  ?  It  was  finally  decided  to 
risk  it,  and  away  we  went,  paddling  for  all  we  were 
worth,  but  it  was  dark  when  we  reached  the  head  of  the 
"  Rips,"  and  we  were  "in  for  it." 

'Tis  a  beautiful  sight  in  daylight  to  see  the  canoes 
on  these  rapids,  rushing  one  after  the  other  from  shore  to 
shore,  dodging  this  rock,  sliding  over  that  .shelf,  or  doub- 
ling around  some  intruding  ledge,  all  the  while  striving 
to  keep  in  the  channel,  which  in  some  places  is  not  more 
than  four  or  five  feet  wide.  At  night,  however,  the  sight 
is  not  quite  so  captivating,  especially  if  the  night  be  a 
dark  one  and  you  happen  to  make  up  a  part  of  the 
canoe's  cargo. 

to 


We  got  through,  however,  without  any  greater  mis- 
hap than  breaking  the  ril)  of  one  canoe  and  shii)pingsonie 
water  into  another.  A  few  minutes  after  emerging  from 
the  l)oiling  "  Rocky  Kips"  we  heard  the  roar  of  the  falls 
about  a  mile  further  down.  The  sound  was  grand, 
and  we  thought  we  were  going  to  have  another  exciting 
run,  but  the  guides  said  that  we  (the  sports)  would  have 
to  get  out,  walk  through  the  woods  to  the  bott(jm  of  the 
falls,    f about    a    half    mile.)     This   was    to   lighten    the 


SKv-  ^ii^Kf'  ' 

f    '                         .'-=.«*»^i^^^ 

g^^jjjglPfc. 

.-aKSsSwi^rS^STZ-^  •       "                                           .  ^    .  •— •:.  ■    .   jm 

K^',,;^.         "'*■'* '  ■  ii^mfr—  ■     01^                '^^ 

PENOBSCOT    RIVEB:    B*Tf*U    ON    THE    RAPIDS    AT    "HALF-WAV    HOUSE. 


canoes.  They  then  rearranged  the  loads  and  started 
down  the  falls  by  water  while  we  went  down  by  land,  and 
it  was  darker  in  the  woods  than  it  was  on  the  river.  We 
stumbled  and  tripped  over  roots  and  logs,  while  the 
guides  stumbled  and  tripped  over  rocks.  We  got  through 
all  right  and  .so  did  they — after  a  fashion.     One  man  had 


to  jump  out  of  his  canoe  to  save  it  and  another  man 
brought  his  canoe  clown  leaking.  Neither  man  seemed 
exactly  happy.  However,  there's  very  little  pure  hap- 
piness in  this  world  and  perhaps  the  adulterated  article 
tastes  all  the  better  for  its  mixture  with  a  little  misery. 
In  a  few  minutes  the  loads  were  changed  and  we 
were  off  again  down  the  river.  After  a  run  of  about  an 
hour  we  saw  the  lights  of  the  Chesuncook  House  looming 
up  bright  and  cheery  in  the  distance,  and  in  a  little  while 
we  stood  within  its  hospitable  doors.  We  found  it  chock 
full  of  guides  and  "sports,"  and  among  the  latter  was  a 
goodly  proportion  of  "lady  sports."  No  less  than  four 
of  the  "short  skirt"  variety,  who,  with  their  "little" 
rifles,  their  "little"  boots,  their  "little"  jerseys,  their 
"little"  fishing  rods  and  their  "little"  fellers,  made  the 
scene  an  interesting  and  we  might  say  (although  hanging 
should  be  the  penalty  for  such  a  pun)  an  amooseinf  one. 


c34P 


la 


CUPID  IN  THE  WILDERNESS. 

This  love  will  iimlo  us  all.    O,  Cupid  !    Cupid  !    Cupid  ! 

—  Troilus  and  Ctessida. 

Y  f  UMAN  nature  is  the  same  the  world  over,  and  Cupid, 
pj      sly  dog  that  he  is,  appears  to  know  that  the  wild 
*  A^  woods  and  lakes  and  rivers  of  Maine  are  no  excep- 
tion to  the  rule.  Ah ,  me !  if  these'same  woods  and  lakes  and 
rivers  had  tongues  and  knew  how  to  use  them  what  queer 
tales  they  could  tell,  and  what  incidents  would  come  to 
light  that  now  slide  into  the  past  unstoried  and  unrecorded ! 
Here,  in  this  very  wilderness,'  hunting,  fishing  and 
pleasure  parties  yearly  congregate,  and  among  the  latter 
is  plenty  of  fit  food   for   Cupid's   powder.     Young  and 
beautiful  girls  with  enough  will,  skill  and  ingenuity  to 
paddle  their  own  canoe  and  make  love  at  the  same  time — 
if  their  chaperones  are  sleepy  enough  to  permit  the  per- 
formance of  such  a  double  barreled  programme. 

These  fishing  and  pleasure  parties  remain  no  longer 
than  the  middle  or  latter  part  of  September,  but  while 
they're  here  the  crafty  little  winged  god  is  up  to  his  chin 
in  business,  and  to  be  hit  with  Cupid's  arrow  is  as  com- 
mon as  trouble.     Ah, 

"  Cupid  is  a  knavish  lad 
Thus  to  make  poor  females  mad." 

But,  with  all  due  respect  to  William  Shakespeare  I 
would  remind  him  that  it  is  not  from  out  the  female  sex 

13 


alone  that  Cupid  chooses  his  candidates  for  the  mad- 
house. The  "knavish  lad  "  is  no  respecter  of  persons  or 
sex,  as  the  immortal  William  would  soon  discover,  if  his 
canonized  bones  could  hurst  their  cerements,  (juit  their 
narrow  bed  and  revisit  the  glimpses  of  the  moon  that 
overlights  this  summer  habitat  of  the  curly-headed  god. 
Now  I  coMi  to  think  of  it,  William's  bones  needn't 
go  to  all  that  trouble.     The  sad,  lamenting  tone  of  the 

words, 

"  (),  love's  bow  shoots  buck  and  doe," 

proves  that  he  knew  the  ainbisexability  of  Cupid's  tricks 
quite  as  well  as  he  seams  to  have  known  everything  else. 


AN   OLD    "TOTE"    ROAD   ALONQ    THE    PENOBSCOT    IN    EARLY    OCTOBER. 

Funny  indeed  are  some  of  the  doings  and  undoings 
of  engaged  couples.  Here  is  an  instance  which  I  hope 
the  interesting  couple  with  a  pair  of  hearts  that  "beat 
as  one"  will  pardon  me  for  giving  away.     They  made 

14 


the  sad  discoverj'  that  their  canoe  was  too  small  to  hold 
an  embryo  bride  and  her  best  young  man  at  the  same 
time  ;  but  love  that  "laughs  at  locksmiths"  surely  would 
not  cry  at  a  less  serious  emergency.  Its  resources  are 
much  too  ready  for  that.  They  placed  two  canoes  side 
by  side,  anchored  them  together  with  a  pair  of  encircling 
arms  and  with  a  guide  to  paddle  in  tin-  stern  of  each 
love-laden  vessel,  went  on  their  way  rejoicing. 

Now  these  guides  while  they  know  how  to  paddle 
know  quite  as  well  how  to  tattle,  and  tattle,  in  truth, 
they  do 

Of  the  <loinj{s  ami  the  wooiiij^s, 
Of  the  billinj(s  ami  tlic  cooiiij^s. 
Of  the  kissiiigs  and  the  hii^f^iiigs  of  tlic  pair  ; 
Of  the  loviiigs,  of  the  scoliliiij^s. 
Of  the  rapturous  enfolditi^s — 
Oh,  Paradise  with  lots  of  fun  to  spare  ! 

Of  course,  the  yuidcs  arc  only  mortals,  and  as  all 
this  takes  place  within  easy  reach  of  their  eyes  and  ears 
they  would  be  more  than  mortals — or  less — if  they  didn't 
tattle,  lile.ss  your  heart,  the  amount  of  it  they  have  re- 
tailed to  me  would  more  thati  fdl  a  book  the  size  of  Web- 
ster's Unabridged.  Vou  shall  have  the  benefit  of  it  some 
day,  as  I  intend  to  pick  out  a  few  of  the  best,  the  very 
best  of  their  stories  and  print  them.  Then,  oh  then,  look 
out  for  something  rich,  rare  and  racy  ;  but  not  lunv. 
We'll  first  give  these  turtle  doves  a  chance  to  get  married. 

A  new  crowd  of  visitors  have  appeared  in  the  Maine 
woods  and  waters.  Visitors  who  are  bent  on  killing  the 
succulent  deer,  the  solitude-loving  caribou  and  the  lordly 
moose  (the  noblest  Roman  of  them  all.) 

15 


The  visitors,  by  the  force  of  circumstances,  are 
obliged  to  have  guides  whose  particular  policy  it  is  to 
"speed  the  parting  'sport'  and  welcome  the  coming 
one."  In  the  various  places  where  these  guides  meet, 
(ireenville,  Kineo,  Northeast  Carry,  Chesuncook  House, 
Mud  Carry,  I<:agle  Lake  or  Churchill  Lake  and  hundreds 
of  other  places,  there's  a  great  comparing  of  notes  of  the 
many  things  said  and  the  many  things  done  by  the  de- 
parted guests.  As  I  have  already  hinted,  I  may  at  some 
future  time  give  you  the  pith  of  a  few  of  these  notes. 

It  is  surprising  how  many  Philadelphians  there  are 
already  in  the  woods  for  the  fall  hunting,  which  started 
October  ist,  and  how  many  more  we  hear  of  that  are 
coming.     Kvery   hotel   register    is   well   sprinkled   with 
names  of  residents  of  our  Quaker  City,  more,'  I  think, 
than  from  any  other  place.     One  of  my  guides  hurt  his 
knee,  so  that  the  limb  swelled  to  double  its  natural  size. 
I  was  considering  how  I  could  send  him  home  (a  journey 
by  canoe,  of  over  five  days,  which  with  five  more  days, 
for  the  return  of  the-  guide  who  took  him  out,  made  the 
matter  a  very  serious  one).     He  relieved  my  mind,  how- 
ever, by  telling  me  he  had  heard  of  a  doctor  who  was 
camped  at  the  head  of  a  bog  a  few  miles  away.     I  put  my 
man  at  once  into  a  canoe  and  paddled  up  to  the  tent  ot 
the  Esculapian  disciple  whom  I  found  to  be  an  eminent 
one  and  a  Philadelphian.     After  looking  at  the  man's 
damaged  limb,  he  said  :     "Well,  I  am  an  expert,  or  con- 
sidered so,  on  insanity,  and  perhaps  on  one  or  two  other  of 
nature's  calamities,  but  I  am  not  an  expert  on  swelled  legs. 
However,  this  is  what  I  advise  you  to  do."     And  he  told 
him.     The  doctor's  advice  seems  to  have  been — what  a 

i6 


doctor's  advice  sometimes  is  not — the  proper  thing,  for 
the  leg  got  well,  liut  before  the  man  could  call  again  to 
return  his  thanks  and  tell  the  good  doctor  of  the  cure, 
that  individual  had  vanished  further  into  the  wilderness, 
and  I've  not  seen  hitn  since. 


PENOBSCOT    RIVER    WITH    ITS    FIRST    COAT    OF    ICE  ;    OCTOBER    1»TH,    ISSS. 

The  natives  hereabout  are,  in  money  matters,  what 
the  Scotch  call  "canny."  And  canny  enough  some  of 
them  are,  to  give  any  Scotchman  points  and  beat  him 
with  ease.  Listen  to  this.  A  storekeeper,  "a  native 
here  and  to  the  manner  born,"  had  a  mother.  I  don't 
wish  you  to  infer,  however,  that  he  differed  in  this  par- 
ticular from  any  other  storekeeper.  He  was  a  dutiful 
son,  and  doted  on  his  mother,  showing  her  every  mark 
of  filial  affection.  This  was,  of  course,  very  commendable 
in  him,  but  she  deserved  it  all,  for  report  says  she  was  a 
"grand  woman."  In  the  course  of  human  events,  the 
old  lady  became  "worrited."  Life's  cares  and  troubles 
came  so  thick  and  fast  they  began  to  choke  up  the  oil  in 

J7 


her  lamp  of  life.  It  cotniuenced  to  flicker  and  grow  dim 
and  needed  only  a  pufFof  apoplexy  to  i>ut  it  out  entirely. 
When  the  end  came  the  son's  grief  wa.s  touching,  and  the 
more  so  as  there  was  no  jilace  he  could  obtain  a  coffin 
nearer  than  a  town  three  days'  journey  away.  Mow  to 
get  there  and  back  in  time  to  bury  the  old  lady  decently 
troubled  his  mind,  and  the  indecency  of  burying  her  in 
one  of  their  common  pine  receptacles  was  more  shocking 
to  his  delicate  sense  of  propriety  than  planting  her  in  a 
dry  goods  box.  At  this  juncture  a  man  who  had  long 
known  and  revered  the  departed  woman  volunteered  his 
services  to  fetch  a  coffni.  With  sturdy  strokes  of  his 
paddle  in  the  "dead  "  waters  of  the  river  and  the  deft  u.se 
of  the  pole  in  pushing  up  over  the  "quick"  waters  he 
hurried  on.  After  reaching  a  "carry  "  he  almost  ran 
across  it  (two  miles)  to  catch  the  first  boat  to  the  town 
where  coffins  were  for  sale,  made  his  purcha.se  and  speeded 
back  to  the  "carry."  Putting  the  coffin  in  his  canoe  he 
started  down  the  river  as  rapidly  as  elbow  grease  and 
paddle  could  drive  him.  When  he  landed,  the  son  of  the 
deceased  asked  him  what  his  charge  would  be  for  the  trip. 
The  man  replied  that  he  would  make  no  charge,  that  the 
deceased  had  always  been  kind  to  him,  and  what  he  had 
done  was  little  enough  to  show  the  good  will  and  respect 
he  had  for  her,  and  that  he  was  glad  to  have  been  able  to 
make  the  trip  as  he  had  done.  "But"  he  .said,  "I 
wouldn't  mind  having  a  plug  of  tobacco;  mine  was  all 
used  up  on  the  trip."  The  dutiful  son  handed  him  a  plug 
from  behind  the  counter  and  in  the  most  kind-hearted 
tone  said:  "Ten  cents,  please."  This  he  said  and 
nothing  more. 


18 


CALLING  THE  MOOSE. 

sport  Koyiil,  I  wnriiilit  von  ! 

—  Tu'iiilli  Siiihi  . 

IN  the  latter  diiys  of  Sfi)tt'ml)fr  and  the  early  weeks 
of  October  the  niaiuinotii  deer  known  as  the  moose  is 
mating.  Then  it  is  that  tiie  woods  of  Maine,  Nova 
Scotia  and  New  Hrnnswick  are  traversed  by  thousands 
of  sportsmen  with  their  j^uides  all  in  search  of  one  thinj; 
— a  chance  to  kill  a  bull-moose.  Now  the  female  moose, 
in  one  i)articular,  is  very  like  some  other  females  of  the 
animal  kingdom  ;  she  is  coy  and  capricious,  leading  her 
lover  "a  merry  dance  o'er  moss  and  fell,"  through  bog 
and  swamp,  along  the  margins  of  lakes  and  i)onds  and 
lagoons  or  "  logans "  as  the  latter  are  called  in  this 
region.  At  night  she  comes  down  to  the  water  to  feed 
on  the  roots  and  tops  of  the  lily  pad  which  grows  so 
abundantly  in  sluggish  waters.  If  her  mate  be  her 
escort,  he  usually  stands  on  the  bank,  eyeing  his  spou.se 
tenderly  as  she  feeds,  and,  with  ears  cocked,  is  ever  ready 
to  protect  her  from  all  danger,  real  or  fancied. 

If  the  bull  moose  has  no  cow  of  his  own  but  is 
merely  ranging  and  scouring  the  country  to  find  a  sweet- 
heart that  suits  his  fancy,  then  is  the  time  he  is  apt  to  fall 
into  a  trap  and  a  very  sure  one.  On  a  still  night  (and, 
mind  you,  the  night  must  be  still)  around  every  lake, 
pond  and  river  where  the  moose  frequents  and  feeds,  the 

«9 


-^^^ 


bull  hears  the  sounds  of  sweetest  melody ;  sounds  filled 
with  such  plaintive,  loving,  caressing,  lonely,  forsaken, 
"come-to-my-arnis"  sort  of  cadence  that  he  cannot  resist 
the  appeals.  These  loving  sounds,  termed  the  "call" 
with  their  ascending  and  descending  notes  are  produced 
by  the  guides,  their  instrument  being  a  birch  bark  horn. 
If  the  "call  "  be  well  .ude  it  will  be  heard  by  the  bull 
miles  and  miles  away.  Pricking  up  his  ears  he  will  start 
on  the  run,  thrashing  through  the  brake,  barking,  bellow- 
ing, grunting  and  in  his  own  affectionate  manner  aivswer- 
ing  the  impassioned  notes  of  his  counterfeit  mistress. 
When  he  reaches  the  edge  of  the  wood  he  grows  wary 
and  suspicious.  He  will  steal  up  and  down  among  the 
bushes  listening  and  scenting  in  a  "  she-may -be-fooling- 
me ' '  sort  of  way,  and  sometimes  it  takes  many  nights  to 
convince  him  that  he  is  the  identical  gentleman  the  lady 
moose  is  "stuck  on,"  and  for  whom  she  is  so  lovingly 
calling.  Alas,  how  many  a  bull-moose  Lothario  falls  a 
victim  to  his  own  vanity  and  the  bewitching  notes  of  a 
birch  bark  horn  ! 

Although  the  bull-moose  is  a  thoroughbred  Mormon, 
having  sometimes  as  many  as  five  wives  in  his  harem, 
yet  when  he  has  one  of  them  specially  under  his  protec- 
tion he  will  hardly  leave  a  bird  in  hand  for  one  in  the 
bush.  I  have  myself  heard  him  answer  a  "  call  "  while 
engaged  in  his  protective  duty,  and  then  make  a  start, 
which  in  this  instance  was  for  two  miles  ;  but  the  loving 
voice  of  the  real  moose  called  the  wanderer  back  to  his 
protectorate  duties  and  the  family  bosom.  I  Jieard  and 
saw  all  this.  Saw  him  approach  the  water,  step  into  it 
and  splash  it  with  his  feet,  meanwhile  looking  cautiously 


ao 


around  as  if  he  scented  danger.  And  there  was  danger 
and  a  good  deal  of  it  in  the  air.  In  the  front  of  a  canoe 
sat  a  hunter — one  of  the  ' '  sports, ' ' — with  rifle  ready 
cocked,  and  heart  throbbing  and  thumping  as  though  it 
would  burst  the  buttons  off  his  coat.  A  moment  of  hold- 
your-breath  suspense,  and  then  bang!  goes  the  45-90  car- 
tridge, the  report  sounding  and  resounding  through  the 
woods  and  over  the  waters  for  miles  around.  There  was 
another  bang  and  yet  another,  but  whether  it  was  the 
uncertain  light  or  the  excitement  which  interfered  with 
the  hunter's  aim,  or  whether  it  was  due  to  his  sitting  for 
hours  "  still  as  a  mouse  "  and  in  an  atmosphere  with  the 
thermometer  at  freezing  point,  I  can't  say.  But  I  can 
say  that  the  moose  escaped  unharmed,  untouched  by  the 
bullet  that  might  have  forever  put  an  end  to  his  Mormon 
habits  and  Don  Juanish  journeys. 

The  sport  of  moose  hunting  is  one  that  requires  a 
great  deal  of  patience  and  perseverance  under  such  trying 
difficulties  as  exposure  to  cold  and  lo.ss  of  sleep.  But 
your  reward  is  ample — plenty  of  excitement,  and  if  suc- 
cessful, a  magnificent  antlered  head  as  a  trophy  of  your 
prowess. 

Last  night  my  guide  and  I  set  out  to  paddle  up  the 
inlet  of  a  little  lake  we  are  encamped  upon,  with  the 
intention  of  "calling"  if  it  should  be  still  enough 
to  do  so.  There  was  some  wind  on  the  lake,  but  we 
thought  there  might  be  little  or  none  in  the  forest-shel- 
tered inlet.  I  was  tucked  down  in  the  front  of  the  canoe 
with  blankets,  to  keep  my  legs  warm  (for  it  is  cold,  very 
cold,  up  here),  with  heavy  woolen  socks  drawn  over  my 
boots  and  a  woolen  cap  down  over  my  ears.     We  paddled 


31 


ft 


about  a  mile  and  found  the  wind  worse  than  it  was  on  tlie 
lake  below,  and  so  strong  as  to  make  it  hard  canoeing. 
In  a  big  bog  on  the  right-hand  side  we  heard  a  branch 
break.  We  stopped  and  listened.  A  deer,  we  both 
thought,  as  another  and  another  branch  broke.  Then 
came  the  sound  of  heavy  footfalls  and  we  knew  a  moose 
was  "coming  to  the  water."  We  listened  intently,  so 
intently  that  I  could  hear  the  ticking  of  my  watch, 
though  it  was  buried  under  a  sweater,  a  coat  and  an 
overcoat ;  nay,  more,  I  heard— perhaps  it  may  have  been 
fancy — the  stretching  of  my  elastic  suspenders  as  I 
breathed.  Soon  we  distinguished  through  the  dark  of 
the  moonless  night  a  great  object,  big  as  a  hippopotanuis, 
move  down  the  bank  and  step  into  the  water.  The  guide 
pushed  the  canoe  up  deftly  and  silently,  but  the  wind  wna 
at  its  worst  at  this  time  and  blew  the  canoe  diagonally 
against  a  tree  top  sticking  out  of  the  water  on  the  other 
shore.  This  made  a  noise,  little  it  is  true,  but  yet  it 
sounded,  oh,  how  great !  Just  then  we  saw  another  huge 
object  on  the  bank.  Now,  up  to  this  time,  we  could  not 
make  out  whether  the  monster  in  the  water  was  a  bull  or 
a  cow-moose  (and  it  was  rather  important  to  know  which » 
as  a  fine  of  $ioo  and  three  months  impris  nnient  is  the 
penalty  imposed  for  shooting  a  cow.) 

It  was  so  dark  I  couldn't  see  whether  the  big  object 
had  horns  or  not ;  but  the  guide  settled  the  problem  with 
"  be  quick  !  that's  him  on  the  bank — now  down  him  !" 
I  raised  my  rifle,  aimed  for  what  I  believed  to  be  his 
shoulder,  and  pulled  the  trigger,  but,  horror  of  horrors, 
the  hammer  wouldn't  budge  ;  again  I  sighted  and  pulled, 
and  yet  again,  but  all  to  no  purpose.     My  rifle  was  more 


harmless  than  a  pocket  pistol  loaded  with  Jersey  applejack. 
The  cow  soon  took  alarm,  floundered  up  the  bank  and  in 
the  twinkling  of  an  eye  they  were  both  gone,  he  bellow- 
ing and  barking  through  the  alders,  crashing  down  every- 
thing before  him  in  his  mad  rage  and  fury,  and  she 
silently  stealing  away  in  the  darktiess  and  seclusion. 

There  were  two  very  disgusted  men  that  night — one 
because  the  other  didn't  shoot  and  the  other  because  his 
rifle  wouldn't  shoot.  On  coming  into  camp  I  made  an 
examination  of  the  trouble  and  found  that  on  account  of 
several  days'  steady  rain  the  lock  of  the  rifle  had  become 
so  rusty  (although  greased  every  day)  that  it  would  not 
work,  and  thereby  the  life  of  a  bull-moose  was  probably 
saved.  A  job  idso  awaits  a  gunsmith,  if  one  can  be 
found,  capable  of  taking  a  rifle  apart  and  fixing  it  so  that 
it  will  obey  the  trigger,  at  least  one  time  out  of  three. 

We  have  now  been  in  the  woods  in  the  northern  part 
of  Maine  for  over  three  weeks.  In  that  time,  I  think, 
we've  had  but  two  fine  days,  the  rest  being  made  up  of 
wind,  rain,  snow  and  ice;  winds  from  all  points  of  the 
compass  ;  winds  strong,  to  the  strength  of  a  gale,  then 
softening  down  to  a  zephyr,  but  still  they  were  winds ; 
cold  winds,  warm  winds,  moist  winds,  dry  winds  (you 
see  we're  "moose  calling,"  and  you  cannot  call  moose 
successfully  in  windy  weather;  that  is  the  reason  we  notice 
the  wind).  Rains?  Yes,  of  all  degrees  and  conditions  ; 
soft  rains  and  hard  rains,  gentle  rains  and  furious  down- 
pours— one  of  which  is  now  having  things  its  own  way 
as  I  write  this.  My  guides  are  building  a  break-rain, 
break -weather,  break-water  Tor  whatever  you  may  please 
to  call  it)  of  fir  trees.     They  are  planning  where  to  put 

as 


^^^m^^^^^SS^w^mSm 


1^' 


the  "door,"  but  as  the  rain  seems  to  blow  from  every- 
where, it  will  probable  result  in  carrying  the  fir  grove 
clear  around  the  camp. 

During  this  miserable  rainy  spell  I  have  watched  the 
game  with  some  interest  (what  little  of  it  I've  been  able 
to  see)  to  learn  how  they  relish  the  damp  humor  of 
Jupiter  Pluvius.  They  seem  to  fancy  it  no  more  than  do 
their  enemies  the  human  bipeds. 

Yesterday  I  observed  some  partridges  huddled  under 
a  big  log,  with  feathers  wet  and  all  their  glory  of  color 
and  fluffy  sleekness  departed.  The  cock  bird  looked 
woe-begone  and  cheap  and  ragged — a  dripping  melancholy 
shadow  and  I  thought  of  the  poet's  lament : 

"  Shades  of  the  mighty  can  it  be 
That  this  all  remains  of  thee  ?' ' 

To-day  I  started  a  deer  from  out  of  a  clump  of  young 
pines,  where  he  had  been  sheltering  himself.  Again  I 
came  across  an  old  doe  standing  under  a  couple  of  big 
cedar  trees,  and  after  she  had  "  lit  out "  I  went  and  sat 
down  in  her  ".arbor."  Although  the  rain  was  coming 
down  in  streams,  yet  none  fell  on  me  and  I  spent  there  a 
couple  of  happy  hours  watching  the  capers  of  the  only 
living  things  that  had  the  courage  to  brave  the  storm — 
the  red  squirrels.  They  were  busily  occupied  in  laying 
up  their  winter  stores  which  seemingly  were  to  consist  of 
pine  cones,  as  each  had  one  of  these  in  his  mouth.  I 
noticed,  though,  they  took  good  care  to  run  along  the 
ground  under  the  logs,  and  not  on  top  of  them. 

We  take  the  weather  philosophically,  because  we're 
well  prepared  for  it,  having  plenty  of  dry  clothes,  a  big 

34 


amp  to  come  to,  a  roaring  fire,  an  abundance  of  the  finest 
game  in  the  world  to  eat,  clear  spring  water  (a  mineral 
spring  at  that)  to  drink,  good  appetites  and  rugged 
strength  to  go  out  upon  a  big  tramp  every  day,  no  matter 
whether  the  weather  is  what  it  ought  to  be  or  whether  it 
isn't. 

It  is  asserted  that  at  least  fifteen  hundred  sportsmen 
are  now  in  the  Maine  woods.  If  so,  there'll  be  fully  two 
thousand  guides,  making  an  army  of  say  three  thousand 
five  hundred  people,  many  of  them  with  only  a  week  or 
ten  days'  time  at  their  disposal,  and  .some  of  them  accom- 
panied by  ladies.  So,  while  it  is  bad  for  us  it  is  much 
worse  for  "  the  other  fellers,"  whose  short  supply  of  time 
won't  allow  them  to  wait  for  the  glad  sunshine  to  come. 
Why,  therefore  should  we  complain  ? 


as 


AN  UNEXPECTED  TPKAT. 

Who  conu's  liLMe?    My  doe? 

—Merty  Wives. 

*T\     COUPLE  of  evenii'gs  since  we  had  a  quiet  spell  for  a 
lV     few  hours,  and  my  guide  and  I  started  out  moose 
*    V      "  calling. "     We  pushed  our  canor  very  cautiously 
up  the  inlet  of  the  little  lake  we're  camped  on,  paddling 
as  lightly  as  possible,  stopping  frequently  to  listen,  peer- 
ing with  expectant  eyes  into  every  bunch  of  alders,  every 
clump  of  young  pines,  hoping  against  hope  that  we  might 
see  a  moose  "coming  to  water.' '     It  was  about  five  in  the 
afternoon,  and  the  scenery  along  the  brook  was  clothed  in 
beauty  beyond  the  poets  fancv  or  the  painter's  pdete. 
The  brown  and  green  tints  of  the  frosted  and  un frosted 
ferns  ;  the  tufts  of  waving  grasses  with  their  green  blades 
tipped  with  yellow  ;  the  alders  just  beginning  to  put  on 
their  autumn  brown  ;  the  red  maple,  the  yellow  birch,  the 
dark  green  pines,  the  sta'ely  juniper,  the  sad  cypress,  and 
all   mirrored    in   the    tawny   stream    Uiat   flowed   lazily 
beneath,  without  a  ripple  to  disturb  or  fret  the  reigning 
silence. 

Silence  }  Yes  !  Nature  seemed  to  be  up  to  her  neck 
Ml  the  depths  of  the  hush  hs  the  guide  shoved  our  canoe 
(  •  a  pine  root  to  anchor  it.  After  he  did  so,  he  t  ok  up 
Mi;5  birch  bark  h.  rn  and  gave  the  three  "calls"  of  the 
ouvi  noose.     First,  the  short,  tremulous  wail;  then  the 

26 


more  urgent  and  commanding  one,  and,  lastly,  the  long, 
resonant,  loving,  coaxing,  beseeching  appeal,  which  no 
living  bull-moose  with  iu\y  bowels  of  compassion  can 
resist.  To  produce  this  call  the  guide  winds  the  horn 
around  in  continued  circles,  the  motion  giving  the  sound 
tJiat  trembling,  undulating  effect  which  the  genuine 
article  always  has. 

Immediately  after  the  "call"  we  heard  a  branch 
break  in  the  woods  to  the  right  of  us,  a  hundred  yards, 
pel  haps,  away.  I  took  up  my  field-glass  and  watched 
until  I  saw  a  couple  of  bewitching  eyes,  a  pair  of  ears, 
erect  and  vigilant,  and  the  peculiarly  graceful  neck  which 
I  knew  could  belong  only  to  the  doe  deer.  She  .stood 
between  two  cedars  and  for  a  while  watched  us  intently, 
then  stole  carefully  up  the  stream  to  where  it  turned  sharp 
to  the  left  and  where  a  bank  covered  with  marsh  gra.ss 
made  a  pretty  foreground  for  the  picture.  Here  she 
planted  herself,  rigid,  with  nostrils  dilated,  ears  standing 
straight  up,  eyes  fixed  on  us,  and  with  every  other  indica- 
tion that  we  were  the  only  object  that  at  present  occu- 
pied her  attention  and  curiosity.  The  guide  gave  the 
moose  "calls "  every  few  minutes  and  they  could  be  heard 
miles  away,  yet  there  she  stood,  truly,  '  'a  thing  of  beauty  ' ' 
if  not  a  joj'  forever. 

The  day  waned,  the  sun  sank  behind  a  nia.ss  of 
clouds,  twilight  came  and  went,  still  there  she  stood, 
motionless,  entranced,  bewitched  silhouetted  against  the 
evening  sky  like  a  graceful  statue.  And  when  the  cloak 
of  night  shut  us  from  her  sight  then  her  curiosity  seemed 
to  become  uncontrollable.  We  could  not  .see,  but  heard 
her  cro.ss  the  brook  softly,  then  steal  down  the  left  bank 

*7 


1 


hi! 

ii 

i 

Ii 

Hi 


h 


picking  her  way  daintily  behind  the  alders  and  cedar  trees 
until  she  was  abreast  of  us.  A  few  minutes  of  silence 
and  we  could  almost  imagine  her  letting  loose  her  curi- 
osity :  "Who  can  these  mortals  be?  Are  they  living 
creatures  ?  And  what  heavenly  music  that  was  !  Poor 
things,  how  can  they  sit  so  long  on  the  water  and  keep  so 
still !  And  what  are  they  after  anyway  ? ' '  She  no  doubt 
thought  all  this  if  she  didn't  say  it.  Then  she  stepped 
out  in  the  open  and  came  so  close  to  the  canoe  we 
could  almost  have  hit  her  with  a  paddle.  Did  we  shoot ! 
No,  sir !  No  thought  had  we  of  killing  that  trusting, 
unsuspecting  creature,  whose  beauty  and  grace  of  form 
and  pose  had  for  an  hour  entranced  our  sense  with  a 
vision  of  loveliness  we  can  never  forget.  Venison  ?  Why 
we  would  have  gone  without  the  dainty  dish  for  many  a 
day  rather  than  have  gotten  it  by  the  foul  murder  of  that 
gentle,  soft-eyed,  gazelle-like  doe  of  Chesuncook  Lake. 


ir^ 


•>tfe;^.dl$:«ji^ 


28 


KILLING  THE  CARIBOU. 


Here's  sport  indeed  ! 

—  Cymti-linf. 

WE  had  been  semi-prisoners  for  about  three  weeks, 
with  rains  and  high  winds,  which  effectually  pre- 
vented the  hunting  of  big  game  successfully  in 
the   location  of  our  camp.     Karly   on    the   morning  of 
Monday,  October  5th,  my  guide  said  to  me  "  suppose  we 
go  and  try  to  hunt  that  dam."     We  had  heard  a  great 
many   stories   about  a   dam  at  the  head  of  the  stream 
which    forms    the    inlet    to    our    little    lake   but    were 
inclined  to  think  some  of  these  stories  Munchausenish. 
None  of  our   guides  had   ever  seen  the  dam  and  had 
only    hearsay    for    its    location     and    distance.       One 
maintained   it   was   but  five  miles  away;    another  six, 
and  the  third  one  vowed  it  was  a  good  eight  miles  off; 
besides  there  are  two  branches  to  the  stream,  and  no  one 
knew  on  which  branch  the  dam  was  placed.    So  the  guide 
and  I  started  in  light  hunting  order,  with  a  few  bouillon 
capsules  which  were  to  serve  us  for  dinner  and  supper 
and    possibly   breakfast,  if  we   shouldn't  get  back  that 
night.     We  found  a  "spotted"  path  through  the  woods 
that  led  to  an  old  ' '  tote  ' '  road  up  which  we  went  splash- 
ing through  the  water  accumulated  by  weeks  of  rain  ;  up 
to  our  very  knees  in  mud  sometimes,  slipping,  falling  and 
stumbling  over  cedar  roots,  climbing  over  and   under 

a9 


rr 


pi 


windfalls,  until  we  reached  an  old  lumber  camp,  which 
the  guide  went  down  to  ijivestigate.  Xo.  Maine  guide 
can  pass  an  old  camp  for  the  first  time  without  having  a 
"  look  in  "  to  see  if  anything's  been  left  that  he  can  make 
use  of.  Before  he  reached  the  buildings  three  deer,  one 
of  them  a  big  buck,  jumped  out  of  some  raspberry  bushes, 
and  bounded  away  over  the  creek  and  into  the  woods 
beyond . 

I  started  for  them  and  stalked  them  for  nearly  an 
hour,  until  I  came  within  shooting  distance  of  the  does  ; 
but  although  I  heard  the  l)uck  I  could  not  get  my  eyes 
upon  him,  and  the  does  I  did  not  want;  so  I  returned  to 
the  road.  We  now  had  a  journey  of  three  and  a  half 
miles  over  a  road  probably  as  bad  as  could  be  found  any- 
where;  that  is,  if  mud,  water,  alders,  alder  roots,  cedar 
root-,  windfalls  and  slippery  rf)cks  could  make  it  so. 
There's  an  end  to  all  things,  however,  and  the  road 
finally  led  us  to  a  "  landing"  on  the  brook  where  a  large 
number  of  logs  were  left  high  and  dry  from  the  last  drive, 
Some  of  them,  in  fact,  looked  as  if  they  had  been  there 
for  years.  There  were  probably  half  a  million  feet 
in  and  near  this  spot  We  crossed  the  brook  and  found 
a  logging  road,  which  we  followed  for  a  mile  or  more, 
but  no  signs  of  a  dam.  We  heard  an  occasional  deer 
cracking  a  dry  limb  in  the  dense  wood  or  thicket  of  small 
pines,  which  bordered  the  roadway  on  either  side,  but 
couldn't  get  a  sight  of  them.  Here  the  guide  said  we'd 
better  turn  back,  as  we  were  going  in  the  wrong  direction, 
but  I  proposed  walking  at  any  rate  half  a  mile  further, 
and  probably  we  might  find  something  worth  shooting  at. 
We  made  one  turn  in  the  road  when  we  heard  a  branch 


30 


ii 


break  in  front  of  us.     We  stopped  to  listen,  and  soon  a 
calf  caribou  catne  out  from  the  rij^lit  hand  side. 

It  looked  up  and  down,  saw  us,  l)Ut  moved  into  the 
forest  on  the  other  side  (which  was  here  o\w\\  and  filled 
with  stunted  spruce  trees,  growinj^  in  a  thick  bed  of 
moss).  The  calf  was  followed  a  minute  later  by  a  cow. 
The  guide  whispered,  "now  look  out  for  horns."  Hut 
still  another  cow  came  out  and  crossed  the  road,  followed 
by  a  sight  I  shall  never  forget.  A  pair  of  monster  antlers 
were  very  slowly  pushed  out  into  the  road,  and  after  them 
the  head  and  neck  of  as  grand  a  caribou  bull  as  sun  ever 
shone  upon.  It  was  fully  a  second  later  before  the  animal 
came  into  full  view. 

The  guide  whispers,  "Hit  him  in  the  slumlder  ;  be 
steady  and  sure."     And  I  was  sure,  for  when   I  fired  my 
45-90  rifle  almost  at  the  same  ijistant  the  caribou  dropped 
in  his  tracks.     He  hadn't  moved  an  inch  after  being  hit. 
The  ball  had  pa.s,sed  through  his  left  shoulder  and  out  at 
the  neck.     We  soon  covered  the  hundred  yards  or  more 
of  distance  which  separated  us  from  his  lordship,  whom 
we  found  down  on  his  kncrs  unable  to  rise.     And  then  a 
battle  royal  started  between  Lon  Barnes,  the  guide,  and 
the  bull.     Barnes  wanted  to  finish  him  with  the  back  of 
the  ax,  and  in  order  to  do  .so,  he  would  angle  around  him, 
trying  to  get  in  a  blow  on  the  forehead.     The  caribou, 
however,  although  unable  to  raise   himself  to    his  feet, 
could,  and  did,  swing  his  great  head  and  antlers  around 
in  every  direction  with  vicious  and  lightning-like  move- 
ment.    Had  he  caught  the  guide  with  his  "frontlets  "  or 
antlers  it  would  have  been  a  sorry  day  for  that  individual. 
Another  shot  from  my  rifle,  however,  settled  the  matter. 


3« 


1' 


M  ( 


{■ 


ui  '. 


TH6    "SPORT"    AND   HIS   NOBLE    PRIZE. 


3a 


We  then  eleviited  his  head  and  shouhlers  ujn)!!  some  skids, 
that  were  in  tlie  road,  so  as  to  keep  Iiini  in  ^ood  shape, 
and  then  tramped  hack  to  our  camp,  a  walk  of  fully  six 
miles.  Next  day,  our  three  ^'uides,  my  son  and'  I  went 
hack,  takinj,'  a  camera  with  us,  and,  althou^di  the  morn- 
ing was  rainy  and  s(|ually,  we  obtained  a  fairly  good 
picture  of  him.  As  he  was  frozci  pretty  stiff,  the  men 
raised  him  up  on  his  feet,  and,  fastening  a  rope  from  each 
antler  to  a  couple  of  trees  on  both  sides  of  the  road  (so 
as  to  hold  his  head  up,  and  thus  steady  the  whole  car- 
ca.ss),  the  photographer  (my  young  son]  was  enabled  to 
take  him  in  a  standing  position. 

The  guides  skimied  him,  taking  his  head  off 
unskinned.  The  next  day,  in  order  to  incur  no  risk  of 
having  the  head  spoiled  by  the  wet  weather  or  careless 
skinning.  I  sent  a  guide  with  it  to  (ireenville  (a  three 
days'  journey  there  and  back.  The  bull  was  fourteen 
years  old.  The  antlers  are  thirty -two  inches  long  from 
the  base  of  skull  to  the  tips,  and  have  thirteen  points 
on  each  side. 

The  taxidermist  to  whom  the  head  was  sent  .said  it 
was  the  fine.st  he  had  ever  seen  and  the  largest  he  had 
any  record  of.  On  the  night  of  the  fifth  of  October, 
although  very  tired  and  badly  used  up  with  our  fright- 
fully hard  walk,  neither  the  guide  (Barnes)  nor  I  slept 
nuich.  The  caribou  would  haunt  our  sleep.  We  could 
see  him  almost  every  minute  of  the  night  and  even  now 
the  memory  of  the  scene  is  as  fresh  and  vivid  as  it  was 
on  that  day,  and  I  am  sure  will  be  for  many  moons  to 
come. 


33 


1 


MORE  OF  THE  MOOSE. 


i 


The  PnrnKon  of  Aiiinials. 

— Hamlet. 

THE  same  moniing  of  the  caribou  hunt,  we  left  the 
old  bull  lying  in  the  road,  and  started  back  upon 
our  tracks,  at  about  eleven  o'clock,  to  prosecute  our 
search  for  the  dam  we  had  originally  started  out  to  find. 
Upon  reaching  the  brook  we  followed  it  upward  some 
distance,  until  the  guide,  who  was  quite  "done  up,''  said 
he'd  make  a  fire  and  boil  some  hot  water  in  a  tin  dipper 
for  my  dinner.  I  decided,  however,  to  pufUi  on  until  I 
found  that  dam,  telling  him  to  stay  where  he  was  until 

my  return. 

The  stream  here 

was  choked  up  with 
cut  logs,  which  made 
it  nice  and  easy  walk- 
ing, or  easy  jump- 
ing from  log  to  log. 
Twenty  minutes  of 
tliis  sort  of  travel 
and  I  reached  the 
long-looked- for  dam. 


. 

jfe,  4 

■  it_     'i*           &             Aj 

BARNES,  THE  QUIDE,    "  DONE  UP  "    ON  A  CARIBOU  HUNT, 
DRAWS  COMFORT  FROM  HIS  PIPE. 


34 


Climbing  on  top  of  it  my  eye  caught  the  view  of  as  lovely 
a  spot  for  big  game  to  feed  in  as  could  well  be  imagined. 
The  water  had  been  drawn  oflF  during  the  late  spring, 
and  a  luxurious  growth  of  swale  grass,  cranberry  bushes 
and  young  alder  shoots  had  sprung  up  in  wild  and  wanton 
profusion. 

I  sat  me  down  on  the  dam  and  let  my  senses  wallow 
in  the  sight.  A  stiff  breeze  was  blowing,  swaying  the 
tall  grasses  into  waves  of  graceful  motion  and  bringing  to 
my  ear  a  gentle  rustling  sound— a  twittering /)/«^//.v.v////,;, 
as  it  were,  in  one  of  Nature's  pastorales,  and  which  all 
lovers  of  her  rural  melodies  will  recognize  and  appreciate. 

After  my  fancy  had  jjlayed  awhile  it  ran  up  against 
the  thought:  "What  a  tempting  sanctuary  is  this  for 
big  game!  Surely  it  won't  be  long  without  its  antlered 
heads  and  arched  necks."  Instinctively,  I  crept  behind 
some  bushes  and  watched  and  waited.  Fifteen  or  twenty 
minutes  passed  and  without  my  expectations  being  filled. 
Then  I  thought  of  my  tin  cup  of  bouillon,  and,  fearing  it 
would  be  spoiled,  reluctantly  left  tiie  enticing  spot  and 
traveled  back  over  the  logs  to  where  the  guide  was  wait- 
ing for  me. 

After  drinking  my  bouillon  I  told  the  guide  how 
near  the  dam  was  ;  what  a  wonderfully  attractive  spot  for 
game  it  must  be,  told  him  to  take  my  ride  and  go  up  and 
look  at  some  big  moose  tracks  that  I  luul  found,  and  I 
would  boil  another  cup  of  water  for  his  dinner  while  he 
was  gone.  The  fire  had  burned  down  low.  I  put  on 
more  wood  and  sat  and  watched  the  roaring  blaze,  and 
whistled   while  supreme  contentment  oozed   out  of  me 

35 


Eill 


I 


IfV  i 


^;  • 


\y 


from  every  pore.  My  reverie  lasted  till  broken  by  Barnes^ 
who  rushed  in  with  hardly  enough  wind  left  to  shape  his^ 
words.  He  told  nie  that  just  as  he  got  to  the  dam  a 
young  buU-moo.se,  with  a  monstrouslj'^  big  cow-moose,  had 
come  out  of  the  woods  and  were  feeding  in  the  open  clo.se 
to  the  dam.  It  didn't  take  long  for  us  to  get  back  to  that 
dam.  We  jumped  like  gymnasts  across  the  logs  and 
made  some  leaps  that  might  have  caused  the  kangaroo 
to  uiush  and  hide  her  head  in  her  pouch. 

We  approached  the  dam  itself,  however,  very  care- 
fully, and  peered  over  the  edge  of  it  to  the  open  space 
beyond.  The  bull  was  not  in  sight  and  the  cow  was  more 
than  five  hundred  yards  away.  Thej*,  no  doubt,  had 
scented  the  smoke  from  our  fire,  although  the  wind  was 
verj'  nearly  directly  in  our  favor.  But  we  soon  saw  that 
the  cow  was  uneasy  and  suspicious.  She  would  raise  her 
mane  up  and  then  elevate  her  head  in  the  air,  holding  it 
there  for  a  minute  or  so,  and  then  start  feeding  again. 
This  she  did  three  times,  and  then  she  gave  a  call  that 
was  almost  instantly  answered  by  the  bull,  who  came 
rushing  out  of  the  woods  to  the  back  and  to  the  right  of 
her,  as  she  ran  to  meet  him.  Then  they  wheeled  about,, 
threw  up  their  great  heads,  and  with  dilating  nostrils, 
both  sniffed  the  suspicious  scent  which  had  alarmed  the 
cow  so  much.  They  were  at  this  moment  fully  six  to 
seven  hundred  yards  ofl^,  and  would  soon  make  a  dash  for 
the  woods,  for  every  moment  seemed  to  increase  their 
alarm. 

I  said  to  Barnes:     "What  do  you  think  about  it^ 
Can  I  down  that  bull  at  this  distance?' ' 

36 


u 


"I  don't  think  you  can,  but  there's  no  telling  what 
a  45-90  rifle  can  do.  If  you're  going  to  try  it  you'd 
better  begin,  as  they'll  soon  be  off." 

I  decided  to  try  the  shot,  and  still  keeping  under  the 
edge  of  the  dam,  I  fired,  aiming  for  the  bull's  shoulder. 
My  shot  was  a  clean  miss.     Then  we  saw  a  .scene  that 
illustrated  the  amount  of  human  nature  that  underlies  the 
instinct  of  the  moose.     As  the  report  of  the  rifle  rang  out 
and  echoed  around  the  edges  of  the  forest  encircling  the 
open  space,  the  cow-moose  ran  here  and  there  in  every 
direction,  as  if  fear  had  entirely  dethroned  her  courage 
and  prudence.     But  the  bull  stood  still,  rigid,  erect,  his 
mane  up,  while  every  hair  on  his  body  bristled  defiance. 
I  fired  cartridge  No.  2.  making  another  miss,  and  a 
repetition  of  the  scene  just  described  followed,  the  bull 
standing  still  as  ever.     I  reasoned  that  the  strong  quar- 
tering wind  to  the  right  was  deflecting  the  bullets,  .so  I 
aimed  a  third  time  a  little  more  to  the  left,  and  fired. 

You  should  have  .seen  the  sight  that  followed.  The 
bullet  had  struck  tiie  bull  and  he  started  with  a  rush  and 
a  crash  like  a  locomotive  off  the  rails.  Away  he  went, 
straight  for  the  woods  to  the  left.  The  guide  and  I  then 
sprang  upon  tlie  top  of  the  dam  and  watched  the  cow  who 
was  still  running  about  in  the  open,  thoroughly  panic- 
struck.  A  couple  of  minutes  elapsed  and  then  the  bull, 
although  wounded,  ran  back  out  of  his  stronghold  of 
timber  to  get  the  cow  in  out  of  danger.  This  gave  me  a 
chance  to  fire  three  more  shots  at  him.  While  he  was 
circling  around  the  cow  to  lead  her  into  the  safe  seclusion 
of  the  woods,  he  see.ned  to  say :     ' '  You  can  shoot  at  me 

37 


ur 


all  you  like,  and  kill  me  if  you  can,  but  I'll  save  my  frou 
or  perish  in  the  attempt !" 

And  just  as  soon  as  she  was  headed  and  started 
right,  then  he  got  away  also,  both  entering  the  woods  to 
the  left. 

And  then  the  question  was:  What  shall  we  do? 
Barnes  said:  "Let's  go  back  to  camp  and  give  him  a 
chance  to  lie  down.  If  he's  mortally  wounded  we'll 
find  him,  but  I  fear  you've  given  him  only  a  flesh 
wound,"  We  stopped  at  our  fire  for  Barnes  to  drink  his 
bouillon  which  now  was  cold,  and  then  commenced  our 
eight-mile  journey  to  our  tent.  On  the  road  down,  before 
we  reached  the  logging  camp,  where  we  had  started  the 
buck  deer  and  the  two  does  the  day  before,  I  crept  along 
very  cautioiisly,  hoping  to  catch  a  sight  of  the  big  l)uck. 
The  road  that  led  by  the  old  camp  had  a  path  in  which 
were  several  long  logs  leading  lengthwise  from  the  road 
right  to  the  camp,  and  walking  on  these  logs  with  rubber 
boots  made  no  noise  at  all.  Suddenly  I  came  upon  no 
less  than  six  deer  feeding  in  and  arou.id  a  lot  of  rasp- 
berry bushes.  Four  of  them  were  so  bunched  at  one 
time  I  could  have  placed  a  bullet  that  would  have  gone, 
possibly  through  four  of  them,  certainly  through  three. 
But  they  were  all  does ;  the  buck  wasn't  there  and  I  stole 
back  to  the  "tote"  road  without  even  alarming  them. 

It  was  dark  when  we  reached  camp.  We  were  tired, 
very  tired.  The  excitement  of  the  day  had  been  so  great 
that  neither  guide  nor  ' '  sport ' '  could  sleep .  The  caribou , 
and  the  moose,  and  the  six  deer  kept  marching  in  proces- 
sion through  our  mind,  followed  by  the  queries :     "  Will 

38 


we  find  the  moose?  Is  he  killed?  Will  anything  get  at 
the  caribou  during  the  night  and  mutilate  him  ?' '  In  our 
mind's  eye  we  saw  the  old  fellow  dropping  in  his  tracks, 
saw  the  bull-moose  rushing  from  the  woods  to  coax  the 
wife  of  his  bosom  back  from  the  reach  of  bullets  and  into 
a  place  of  safety. 

And  thus  the  day's  adventures  would  re-enact  them- 
selves with  vividness  and  over  and  over  again  till  daylight 
broke.    Then  ready  and  eager  to  solve  our  caribou  queries, 
if  they  were  solvable,  all  the  guides  (three),  my  son  and 
myself  had  breakfast,  shouldered  camera,  axes,  rifles  and 
ropes  and  started  off  with  the  intention  first  to  photograph 
and  skin  the  caribou  and  .secure  his  head  and  then  to  trail 
the  wounded  moose.    It  was  half-past  one  when  we  reached 
the  dam,  and  in  a  few  minutes  we  found  the  trail  of  the 
bull  by  discovering  a  pool  of  blood  in  the  swale  grass  and 
another  considerable   pool   on   the   edge   of  the  woods. 
After  that  the  trail  of  the  cow-moose  and  the  bull  were 
so  intermixed  that  it  was  hard  to   unravel  them.     But 
there  were  five  of  us,  and  each  would  every  minute  or 
two  discover  a  trace,  a  splash  of  blood  on  the  side  of  a 
tree,  or  a  drop  on  a  leaf,  or  a  streak  of  it  on  some  dead- 
fall the  wounded  moose  had  stepped  over.     At  one  place 
he  had  passed  between  two  trees,  which  had  been  a  tight 
fit,  as  it  showed  the  blood  from  where  he  was  struck  (on 
the  left  hip)  down  his  leg  as  far  as  the  knee.     At  another 
place  he  had  stopped  and  quite   a   circle   of  blood  was 
formed.     But  nowhere  was  there  any  sign  that  he  had 
lain  down.     Nowhere  was  there  blood  enough  to  show 
that  he  had  been  mortally  hit.     We  followed  his  trail  for 
over  two  hours  and  then  reluctantly  concluded  that  our 


moose  would  live  and  prosper  perhaps  for  many  a  year  to 
come,  as  he  would  always  in  future  be  duly  careful  to 
keep  as  far  away  from  the  range  of  a  rifle  as  his  haunts 
and  habits  would  permit,  and  he  would  never,  never 
again  feed  in  a  meadow  in  daylight  during  the  open 
season,  for  a  moose  only  needs  to  be  shot  at  once  to 
make  him  forever  after  the  most  careful  animal  that  roams 
the  wild,  wild  woods. 


i^ 


m  ^ 


m 


^jS^ 


40 


THE  GREAT  NORTHWEST 


Well  hast  ihoii  lessoii'd  iis. 

—  7'i/iis  Andoiiiciis. 

HK  first  thing  that  struck  my  attention  on  my  trip, 
was  Canada's  nagging  policy  in  regard  to  American 
travel. 

I  had  two  guns  and  a  case  of  shells  on  which  duty 
was  claimed.  These,  I  explained,  had  been  in  use  over 
six  years,  and  that  I  was  only  going  to  shoot  a  few  days 
in  Canada  and  then  would  return  with  them  across  the 
borders,  but  my  explanation  had  no  weight.  The  shells 
were  coutited  and  duty  at  the  rate  of  35  per  cent,  exacted 
upon  them,  with  conditions  that  if  I  took  the  guns  back 
out  of  Canada  within  two  months  they  would  refund  the 
duty,  but  not  if  they  should  be  kept  a  day  over  that  limit. 
Such  is  international  courte.sy  between  two  countries  with 
a  border  line  of  four  thousand  miles. 

I  passed  through  the  famous  "  Soo  "  Canal,  where 
our  Government  is  enforcing  its  "  retaliatioji  policy" 
against  Canada.  It  was  therefore  interesting  to  hear  the 
conversations  of  the  Canadians  and  Americans  on  the 
vessel  and  along  the  canal.  We  were  detained  there  four 
hours  in  getting  an  entrance  to  the  lock.  The  Canadians 
point  out  the  fact  that  their  own  canal,  which  is  now  in 
course  of  construction,  will  be  finished  in  two  years,  and 
then  will  come  their  time  to  retaliate  by  putting  up  the 

41 


.« 


^h- 


m  i 


I     ' 


tolls  to  American  vessels  in  the  Welland  and  other  Cana- 
dian water-ways.  They  say  it  was  a  small,  petty  thing 
for  a  great  country  like  the  United  States  to  do,  and  that 
Canada  will  more  than  get  even  in  the  long  run. 

The  Americans,  on  tlie  other  hand,  say  it  serves  the 
Canadians  right,  for  they  are  always  nagging  and  bullying 
us  behind  England  on  the  fisheries,  the  Behring  Sea  and 
other  questions,  and  it  is  time  to  teach  them  a  lesson. 
The  commerce  passing  through  this  canal  in  Canadian 
bottoms  is  very  small,  last  year  being  onlj'  a  little  over  4 
per  cent,  of  the  whole.  Out  of  an  almost  continuous 
procession  of  steamers,  tugs  and  sailing  vessels  which  we 
passed  in  the  "Soo"  River  only  one  was  Canadian,  and 
she  was  a  small  fishing  smack.  So,  pecuniarily,  the 
retaliation  policy  doesn't  amount  to  nuich;  it  is  the  sting 
and  smart  of  it  that  counts.  American  craft  go  through 
free  and  Canadian  craft  pay  20  cents  per  ton  toll. 

It  is  said  that  more  tonnage  passes  through  the 
"  Soo  "  Canal  than  through  the  famous  Suez  Canal.  The 
"Soo"  Canal  is  open  only  about  .seven  months  in  the 
year,  and  it  is  totally  inadequate  for  the  immense  traffic 
passing  through  it ;  therefore  our  Government  is  building 
a  new  canal,  with  a  lock  800  feet  long,  80  feet  wide  and 
21  feet  deep.  The  present  lock  is  515  feet  in  length,  with 
a  60  foot  entrance,  80  foot  inside  and  about  14  foot  6  in 
depth.  The  Canadian  Government  is  making  theirs  1000 
feet  long  and  60  feet  wide  throughout,  but  if  they  do  not 
put  on  an  increased  force  of  workmen  it  will  be  five  years 
before  it  can  be  completed .  The  United  States  Canal  is 
reasonably  sure  of  completion  within  two  years. 

42 


li' 


There  is  jio  object  lesso.i  equal  to  this  catial  for 
demonstrating  the  enormous  resources  of  the  great  North- 
west. As  far  as  the  eye  could  reach  in  both  directions 
was  an  unending  procession  of  vessels  bound  both  up  the 
lakes  and  down  ;  those  passing  down  being  loaded  to  the 
deep  water  line  with  iron  ore.  grain,  lumber,  etc.  ;  those 
passing  up,  with  coal  and  general  merchandise.  And  so 
it  is  every  day  while  navigation  is  open. 

What  a  lot  of  people  with  diversified  pursuits  our 
Canadian  Pacific  steamer  was  carrying  !     Sitting  opposite 
to  me  at  table  was  a  typical  Englishman,  formerlv  a  cof- 
fee planter  in  Ceylon,  but  now  a  large  land  proi>netor  i,i 
Manitoba.      Another  Englishman    had  been  out  to  the 
East  Indies  elephant  shooting,  and  was  on  his  wav  to  the 
Rocky   Mountains  to  try  his  hand  on  the  grizzl'v  bear. 
He  was  a  strenuous  advocate  of  the  Martini-Henry  rifle 
for  large  game,  and  woukhrt  think  of  shooting  a  Win- 
chester (probably  because  it  is  American).     A  number  of 
passengers  were  going  to  shoot  prairie  chickens,  ducks, 
etc.,  others  were  on  their  way  to  buy  land  near  Winni- 
peg.    One  wanted  to  sell  land  up  there,  and  wanted  to 
sell  it  badly.     Merchants  were  returning  from  England, 
Montreal  and  Toronto,  having  bought  their  fall  and  win- 
ter stock :  others  were  journeying  across  the  contnient 
en  route  to  Japan  and  China. 

Coming  up  the  "Soo"  (or  Sault  Ste  Marie)  River, 
out  of  Georgian  Bay,  on  Sunday  last.  I  was  profoundly 
mipressed  with  the  magnitude  of  the  resources  of  the 
great  Northwest.  An  almost  continuous  string  of  grain 
or  ore  laden  schooners,  steamers,  barges  and  "whale- 
backs"    kept   passing    us   for  miles  and  miles,  and  on 

43 


f 
I' 


■I 


arriving  at  the  mouth  of  the  canal,  which  is  hut  a  mile 
long,  we  were  detained  five  hours  waiting  our  turn  to  get 
through  its  one  lock.  The  vessel  in  front  of  us  was  the 
largest  steamer  on  the  lakes — the  Mariposa — over  4000 
tons  burthen,  and  while  the  lock  comfortably  acconuno- 
dated  four  large  schooners  at  one  lockage,  this  steamer 
just  about  filled  the  lock,  so  that  no  other  vessel  could 
enter.  She  belonged  to  Ashtabula,  O.,  and  was  going 
up  with  a  light  cargo  of  coal  and  would  load  iron  ore  for 
her  return  trip.  The  Canadians  seem  to  think  that  our 
Govennnent  made  a  mistake  in  enforcing  the  retaliation 
policy  on  this  canal  but  don't  care  very  much  about  it, 
now  that  the  astonishment  and  surprise  at  the  action  have 
worn  away.  The  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  is  the  prin- 
cipal and  about  the  only  sufferer,  and  they  cannot  be  very 
severely  hit,  as  the  total  Canadian  tomiage  passing  through 
the  canal  last  year  was,  as  I  have  said,  but  a  fraction  over 
4  per  cent,  of  the  whole. 

On  reaching  Fort  William  (an  old  Hudson  Bay 
Company's  fort),  the  very  first  thing  to  attract  my  notice 
was  a  big  wagon  load  of  fine  French  clarets,  brandies 
and  Canadian  whiskies,  marked  "Hudson  Bay  Company." 
I  know  not  how  strong  the  proof  of  the  liquors  may  have 
been,  but  I  do  know  that  the  load  itself  was  to  me  proof 
strong  as  Holy  Writ,  that  the  people  up  this  way  have 
expensive  tastes  and  the  wherewithal  to  gratify  them. 
From  an  unusually  intelligent  and  well  informed  commer- 
cial traveler,  Robert  Atkinson,  of  London,  Canada,  I 
learned  that  the  head  offices  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company 
for  this  district  are  at  Winnipeg,  and  that  on  his  last  trip 
to  that  town  there  were  no  less  than  thirty-two  drummers 

44 


il 


at  the  principal  hotel ;  that  these  represented  the  dry  goods 
and  ready-made  clothing  interests  alone,  and  that  the  buyers 
for  these  de])artnients  of  the  Hudson  Hay  Company  looked 
at  every  man's  samples  before  they  bought  a  dollar's 
worth.  Now,  as  this  company  also  sells  groceries,  wines, 
crockery,  hardware,  drugs,  stoves  atid  tinwHre,  guns, 
ammunition,  etc.,  the  reader  will  easily  see  what  an 
enormous  trade  they  still  monopolize  up  here. 

At  Fort  William  the  C.  P.  R.  R.  has  three  big  grain 
elevators,  which  at  the  present  time  are  full  to  the  roof, 
and  yet  they  are  shipping  by  lake  and  through  the 
canal  as  fast  as  they  can  get  boats  loaded.  The  capacity 
of  these  elevators  are  1,250,000  bushels.  The  train  we 
met  at  Fort  William  was  the  trans-continental  express. 
It  had  eleven  cars,  two  of  which  were  filled  with 
Chinese  passengers  ticketed  through  from  New  York 
to  China.  Two  cars  of  colonists  were  going  out  to 
.settle  at  different  points  on  the  line.  The  cars  were  clean 
and  comfortable-looking,  and  were  u.sed  at  night  as  sleep- 
ers, having  the  same  arrangement  as  to  berths  as  the 
Pullmans,  without,  of  course,  the  luxurious  appoint- 
ments which  characterize  the  latter.  There  is  but  one 
through  train  a  day,  and  this  averages  about  twenty- two 
miles  an  hour. 

The  road  is  a  single  track,  well  ballasted,  has  splen- 
did rolling  stock  and  good  motive  power.  I  am  informed 
that  the  management  of  the  line  contemplates  bestowing 
the  .same  attentions  on  the  through  first-class  passengers 
as  the  trans-Atlantic  steamship  companies  do,  such  as 
passing  fresh  fruit,  beef  tea,  lemonade,  etc.,  around  to  the 
passengers  frequently  during  the  day.     This  will  be  an 

45 


1 


h- 


4    .: 


r 


'■  I 


h      V 


innovation  that  other  lines  would  do  well  to  follow.  The 
Michi>?an  Central  already  has  commenced  to  present 
bouquets  of  flowers  to  passenjjers  on  reaching?  a  certain 
station.  Such  little  attentions  do  not  cost  much  and  they 
make  a  good  advertisement. 

The  city  of  Winnipeg,  with  a  population  of  25,000, 
was  a  veritable  surprise  to  me.  It  has  broad  streets,  half 
as  wide  again  as  our  Market  Street,  four  lines  of  street 
car  tracks,  electric  lights,  electric  railways,  opera  house 
(with  Margaret  Mather  now  playing  there),  fine  stores,  and 
a  hotel  that  would  put  to  shame  any  we  have  in  Philadel- 
phia. It  has  a  frontage  on  the  main  street  of  216  feet,  is 
seven  stories  high,  with  a  rotunda  forty  by  ninety  feet,  a 
dining-liall  fifty  feet  wide,  ninety  feet  long  and  twenty-six 
feet  high,  grandly  lighted  by  three  copper  electroliers, 
aided  by  a  blaze  of  wall  fixtures.  Then  there  are  massive 
stone  fire-places  and  also  a  l)alcony  at  one  end,  where  an 
orchestra  enlivens  the  diinier  hour. 

The  hotel  has  turkish  and  ordinary  Ixiths,  private 
supper  and  dining-rooms,  is  heated  by  steam  and  lighted 
throughout  by  an  elaborate  electric  plant.  The  charges 
are  from  $3  to  #7  per  day,  and  the  hotel  is  well  supported. 
This  hotel,  this  city,  this  Canadian  Pacific  Railroad,  with 
its  progressive  management,  are  indexes  of  the  enterprise 
of  the  Canadian  Northwest.  Here  the  "star  of  empire 
may  well  hold  its  sway;"  here  future  provinces  and 
cities  will  rise  from  the  level  table  land  of  the  prairies, 
by  the  limpid  waters  of  the  Assinil)oine  and  Red  Rivers, 
and  become  rich,  prosperous  and  happy  in  the  lavish  and 
generous  returns  from  the  tillage  of  the  fruitful  soil. 
Future  colonies  will  leave  their  mother  country,   where 

46 


the  "dry  husks  of  poverty  "  arc  their  support  to  find  liere 
a  Kh)rious  paradise  of  plenty.  Here  will  grow  up  a 
strotiH:-lunKed,  magnetic  generation,  which  must  wield  a 
beneficent  influence  upon  the  rest  of  Canada,  and  why 
not  upon  sections  of  our  own  country  that  must  surely 
come  in  contact  with  its  almost  boundless  agricultural 
wealth  and  resources  ? 

As  we  were  about    leaving   Winnipeg  yesterday,  a 
banker  of  that  lively  tovvn,  in  speaking  of  the  boundless 
expanse  of   rich    wheat    lands  around  Winnipeg,  said  : 
"  While  the  land  in  the  neighborhood  of  Winnipeg  raises 
fine  wheat  and  lots  of  it,  one  tlious.ind  miles  further  north 
they  raise  just  as  much    wheat  U>  the  acre  and  just  as 
good."     Onethou.sand  miles  further  north.     Thinkof  it! 
I  do  not  know  and  could  not  find  out  in  what  latitude 
Winnipeg  is  situated,     I  asked  the  clerk  at  the  Manitoba 
House,  among  others.     He  said  he  really  couldn't  tell, 
but   one   thing  sure,  it  is  an  awful  cold  latitude.     The 
railway  guide  says  it  is  one  thousand  four  hundr^^d  and 
twenty-four   njiles    from    Montreal,  and  yet  good   lands 
are  being  cultivated  a  thousand  miles  still  further  north. 
This    fact    helps  to  explain    tlie  enormous  quantities  of 
freight  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railroad  is  sending  down, 
both  by  rail  and  water,  to  the  lakes  and  through  the  St. 
I^awrence  River. 

At  Regina,  the  capital  of  the  province  of  A.s.siniboia, 
we  were  much  interested  in  the  House  of  Parliament, 
the  Governor's  Mansion  and  the  barracks  and  drill  ground 
of  the  famous  mounted  police  force.  All  are  equipped 
with  electric  lights  and  other  modern  conveniences. 

47 


1 .1 


V> 


"  i 


Its  ' 


I, 
.1 


hi 


The  mounted  police  is  said  to  be  the  best  force 
of  its  kind  in  the  world,  and  numbers  over  one  thousand 
men.  They  patrol  the  whole  Northwest,  including  the 
provinces  of  Assiniboia,  Saskatchewan,  Athabasca  and 
Alberta,  keeping  in  order  the  Indian  population  as  well 
as  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  who  might  be  inclined  to 
stray  from  the  right  path. 

Canada's  treatment  of  the  Indian  problem  has  long 
been  acknowledged  as  wiser,  more  humane  and  more  suc- 
cessful than  ours  has  been,  and,  as  a  result,  we  see  the 
prairies  dotted  everywhere  with  Indian  tents,  the  men 
being  occupied  with  the  business  of  farming  or  grazing  of 
cattle.  They  follow  these  pursuits  contentedly  and  appar- 
ently with  good  financial  results.  They  are  well  dressed, 
seemingly  prosperous  and  have  overcome  their  instinctive 
desire  ior  the  excitement  of  the  hunter's  life. 

What  a  sad  sight  is  the  great  square  piles  of  buffalo 

bones  stacked  up  at  different  stations  awaiting  shipment 

to  the  East,  where  they  usefully  wind  up  their  existence 

in  the  sugar  refineries  and  manufactories  of  phosphates. 

The  men  who  gather  the  bones  up  on  the  prairies  and 

haul  them  to  the  station  get  six  dollars  per  ton.     As  an 

indication  of  the  extent  of  the  business,  the  quantity  sent 

forward  from  Moosejaw  Station  alone  is  counted  by  the 

hundred  carloads. 

When  it  is  recollected  that  the  few  pounds  of  bleached 
bones,  forming  one  skelton  and  bringing  perhaps  ten 
ce  .ts  at  the  cars,  were  once  the  framewc  A  of  the  noblest 
animal  that  ever  roamed  over  the  continent,  and  that  had 
he  even  been  slightly  protected  by  law,  by  common  sense 
or  by  humane  feelings,  he  would  have  furnished  us  with  the 

48 


!:^'  It 


luxurious  robe  and  succulent  meat  for  years  to  come,  the 
sight  is  indeed  a  sorrowful  one.  Soon  these  ghastly  piles 
of  bones  will  be  carried  away  and  nothing  left  to  mark 
the  haunts  and  history  of  the  buffalo  except  tradition  and 
the  scarred  sides  of  the  slopes  and  valleys  where  he  dug 
out  his  ' '  wallow. ' ' 

The  coyote  we  saw  very  often  after  passing  Moose- 
jaw;  also  foxes  and  badgers,  and  as  for  gophers,  their 
name  is  legion.  Wild  geese,  ducks  and  snipe  we  also 
saw  on  many  fresh  water  ponds  and  lakes.  To-morrow, 
the  15th,  the  close  season  for  the  prairie  chicken  expires, 
and  thousands  of  guns  will  be  cracking  away  during  the 
day  and  to  the  end  of  the  season.  We  start  out  at  four  in 
the  morning  and  expect  to  have  a  chance  at  a  flock  of  wild 
geese  that  settle  towards  sundown  in  some  wheat  stubble 
a  half  mile  from  here.  We  also  intend  trying  our  guns 
on  the  plump  and  gamey  prairie  hen. 

This  afternoon  we  were  out  snipe  shooting  for  a  few 
hours,  and  on  our  tramp  passed  quite  a  number  of  Indian 
tents  and  villages,  but  neither  the  Indians  nor  their  mot- 
ley variety  of  dogs  paid  any  attention  to  us,  excepting 
one  old  buck  with  a  red  blanket  thrown  over  his  shoul- 
ders. This  fellow  followed  us  silently  around,  watching 
us  intently,  and  although  saying  nothing  seemed  to  be 
piling  up  a  lot  of  thinking. 

A  party  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  are  expr  \  here 
to-morrow  in  their  private  car  on  a  shooting  trip  to  the 
coast.  They  eat  and  sleep  in  the  car,  and  have  been,  so 
far,  very  successful  in  shooting  and  fishing.  We  pas.sed 
them  twenty  miles  away  this  forenoon.  They  expect  to 
start  from  here  on     side  hunt  for  antelope  and  bears. 

49 


'  ^ 


'''V 


,'4\ 


r  ' 


'      il 


AN   OLD      'TOTE"    ROAD;    THE    AUTHOR   WITH    HIS    RIFLE    IN    THE    DISTANCE. 


j!1 


I  am  writing  this  letter  sitting  down  on  the  broad 
prairie  beside  a  palace  car  (where  we  are  luxuriously 
housed  and  fed),  waiting  until  the  beds  are  made  up  and 
breakfast  is  prepared.  It  is  something  certainly  novel  as 
well  as  very  pleasant  to  sit  down  in  this  latitude  to  a 
dinner  of  wild  roast  goose,  teal  duck,  prairie  chicken, 
fresh  peaches,  sweet  potatoes,  ice  cream,  etc.,  with  plenty 
of  drinkables  besides,  and  served  by  competent  waiters. 
For  all  this  luxury  we  are  indebted  to  the  Worcester 
(Mass.)  Excursion  Company,  who  are  on  their  twenty- 
second  annual  shooting  tour,  and  who  have  invited  us  to 
join  them  for  the  season.  Seven  gentlemen  of  the  party 
started,  with  nineteen  horses,  tents,  provisions,  etc.,  for  a 
hunt  after  antelopes  and  grizzly  bears,  their  destination 
being  some  thirty  miles  from  Maple  Creek.  They  expect 
to  be  gone  a  week,  and  of  course  each  man  will  not  be 
satisfied  until  he  bags  his  antelope  or  has  had  a  wrestle 
with  a  bear;  in  the  meantime,  we  that  are  left  are  content 
to  worry  the  prairie  chicken  and  mallard  duck  with  our 
dogs  and  guns. 

One  through  train  from  the  Pacific  and  one  from  the 
Atlantic  stop  here  for  a  few  minutes  each  day,  and  on 
their  arrival  the  platform  is  crowded  with  Indians  dressed 
up  in  their  best  "bib  and  tucker,"  which  means  plenty 
of  feathers,  paint  and  tomahawk.  With  a  special  eye  to 
business  and  the  white  man's  pocket  book  they  come 
provided  with  their  peculiar  wares,  such  as  buff'alo  liorns 
nicely  moiuited  as  hat  racks,  trinkets  of  various  kinds, 
pipes,  etc.  For  some  reason  or  other  the  Indian  has  a 
superstition  against  being  photographed.  Now  almost 
every  train  has  its  kodak  fiend,  and  no  sooner  does  he 

51 


I'ii 


\r 


m 

si-. 


catch  a  glimpse  of  "Poor  Lo"  than  out  comes  his  box 
and  the  fun  begins.     On  Saturday  one  of  these  enthusi- 
astic fiends  tried  to  get  a  snap  shot  at  an  old  ' '  buck  "but 
didn't  meet  with  much  success.     The   moment   the  old 
fellow  saw  the  photographer  getting  ready  to  point  his 
box  he  rushed  at  him  with  an  uplifted  stick,  janmied  him 
against  the  car,  took  possession  of  his  kodak  and  doubt- 
less would  have  wiped  up  the  floor  with  the  picturetaker 
had  the  mounted  police  not  interfered  and  ordered  him 
back  into  the  train.     Yet  the  fiend  wasn't  satisfied.     He 
went  into  the  car  and  thrust  the  camera  out  of  one  of  the 
windows.     Instantly   the   alarm    was   given,    and   every 
squaw  and  brave,  to  the  number  of  thirty  or  more,  dived 
under  the  station  platform,  leaving  the  discomfited  artist 
to  the  jeers  and  hooting  of  the  crowd.     One  of  the  ladies 
of  our  hunting  car,  not   knowing   of  this   trait   in   the 
Indian's   character,    saw   a   bunch   of  squaws   lounging 
around.     She  got  out  her  kodak  and  commenced  to  fix 
it  for  a  snap  shot,  when  one  of  the  .squaws,  in  her  native 
tongue,  threatened  her  with  violence  if  she  turned  "that 
eye"  on  them.     The  lady  didn't  understand  the  panto- 
mime, and  proceeded  to  take   the  picture.     The  squaw 
very  angrily  pulled  a  big  stone  out  from  under  her  blanket 
and  threw  it  with  all  her  force,  hitting  her  on  the  wrist, 
inflicting  a  painful  blow.     There  will  be  no  further  use 
for  the  kodak   on   this   car   for   awhile.     The  telegraph 
operator  here  says  the  Indian   is   equally  afraid   of  the 
"ticker,"  and  it  is  hard  work  to  get  them  near  it. 

On  the  night  of  the  great  prize  fight  between  ' '  Mr.' ' 
Sullivan  and  "Mr."  Corbett  the  cowboys,  ranchers, 
railway   men,   and   in   fact  all   the  inhabitants   of   this 


^fl 


M 


frontier  settlement,  were  in  and  around  the  station.  Tlie 
newspapers  of  Montana,  the  Dakotas  and  Nebraska 
having  formed  a  syndicate  to  have  the  news  wired  to 
them  in  detail,  it  was  sent  over  the  Canadian  Pacific 
wires.  The  operator  sat  in  his  office,  and  in  a  conver- 
sational tone  read  the  account  of  the  fight  as  it  passed 
over  the  wires,  when  it  would  be  communicated  to  the 
outside  crowd.  Toward  the  last,  when  the  "big  fellow,' ' 
"Mr."  Sullivan,  was  getting  the  worst  of  it,  the  excite- 
ment of  the  listeners  was  so  great  they  couldn't  keep  still. 
Even  the  stolid  Indian  got  enthused  and  grunted  his  sat- 
isfaction, and  when  the  last  sentence  was  ticked  out,  then 
pandemonium  was  let  loose.  The  only  hotel  in  the  town 
was  besieged  with  thirsty  customers,  and  all  night  long 
the  yelpings  of  the  coyote  were  blended  with  the  yells 
of  excited  humanity. 

The  Bishop  of  Q'Appell,  who  is  a  baronet  of  Eng- 
land as  well  as  Bishop,  preached  a  sermon  in  the  little 
chapel  here  yesterday  that  was  remarkable  for  its  pro- 
fundity as  well  as  its  eloquence.  He  is  the  leader  in  a 
movement  among  the  Northwest  churchmen  which  is 
intended  to  give  new  life  to  the  Church  of  England  by 
trying  to  arouse  it  from  its  apparent  lethargy  and  by 
claiming  for  it  the  undivided  support  of  the  people  on  the 
ground  of  its  traditions,  history  and  venerable  age.  In 
his  discourse  he  easily  disposes  of  the  dij^senting  churches 
and  then  in  a  learned  argument  he  paid  his  respects  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  and  proceeded  to  show  that  the 
Church  of  England  was  centuries  older  than  the  Roman 
Church.  It  seemed  a  great  waste  of  force  to  preach  such 
a  sermon  to  the  little  handful  of  people  he  had  for  an 

53 


I!   I 


audience,  but  as  he  leaves  this  country  to  spend  his  last 
days  in  England,  after  preaching  here  for  twenty-six 
years,  he  no  doubt  thought  it  well  to  give  the  people 
something  to  think  about. 

The  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  being  the  most  acces- 
sible route  between  Alaska  and  the  East,  some  very  val- 
uable  train    loads   of  merchandise   pass   over   its   rails. 
Probably  one  of  the  most  valuable  trains  of  freight  ever 
hauled  in  the  same  number  of  cars  passed  through  here 
yesterday.     It  was  a  train  made  up  of  ten  cars  of  seal  skins, 
booked  through  to  London .     Each  car  was  valued  at  over 
$200,000 — over  $2,000,000  in  all.     The  train  had  a  wreck 
coming  down  the  slopes  of  the    Rocky  Mountains.     It 
parted  in  two  ;  the  back  portion  ran  into  the  front,  smash- 
ing things  up  very  generally.     What  a  calamity  it  would 
have  been — what  a  rude  shock  to  the  American  feminine 
heart  had  that  train  and  its  precious  cargo  been  destroyed 
by  fire!     How  many  of  the  "lords  of  creation"  would 
have  been  obliged  to  put  their  hand  a  little  deeper  inta 
their  pockets  next  Christm?^  if  the  heart  of  their  better- 
half  should  be  filled  with  love  for  a  new  seal  skin  !     But 
thanks  to  a  providential  decree  that  ordered  otherwise, 
the  calamity  didn't  happen.     The  train  passed  in  safety 
and  let  us  hope  that  its  beloved  cargo  will  survive  the 
boisterous  gales  of  the  Atlantic  and  come  back  to  us  in  the 
shape  of  that  most  beautiful  of  all  the  adorning  apparel  of 
woman — that  warm,  glossy,  cosy,  fascinatingly  lovely,  but 
awfully  expensive,  seal  skin  sacque. 

We  reached  Crane  Lake  on  September  20th.  During 
our  ride  in  the  Hunting  car  Yellowstone  we  had  matured 
our  plans  for  a  big  day's  sport,  and  we  got  it.     I  saw  more 

54 


V 


sport  in  that  one  day — the  21st — than  I  ever  saw  before  in 
a  month.  To  briefly  sketch  the  exciting  incidents  of  the 
day  would,  perhaps,  prove  interesting,  as  all  mankind, 
particularly  the  Anglo  saxon  part  of  it,  has  an  instinctive 
interest,  more  or  less  keen,  in  everything  that  relates  to 
hunting. 


■^ 


Si 


r<'i 


ri 


AN   OLD    "TOTE"    ROAD;    SIGNS   OF   COMING    WINTER. 


There  were  four  of  us.  We  got  up  long  before  break 
of  day  as  silently  as  we  could,  so  as  not  to  disturl)  the 
ladies  of  the  party  (for,  mind  you,  there  are  five  ladies 
journeying  across  the  continent  and  back  in  the  "Yellow- 
stone"). We  got  away  about  "five  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing," just  as  the  geese  were  commencing  to  fly  from  the 
lake  to  the  neighboring  wheat  fields.  We  were  posted 
along  a  low  ridge,  with  strict  orders  to  lie  down  quiet  and 
snug  in  some  thorn  bushes  (to  lie  "quiet  and  snug"  in  a 
thorn  bush  requires  practice).     When  a  flock  came  near 

55 


m  • 


■    i 


we  were  to  jump  up,  single  out  a  goose  and  give  him 
some  No.  i  shot. 

The  day  was  breaking  in  the  East  and  shedding  its 
faint  gray  light  over  the  prairie.  The  dainty  colors  of  the 
wild  flowers,  their  pale  yellows,  their  pinks  and  their 
purples  were  just  becoming  discernible  in  Nature's  prairie 
panorama  which  was  soon  to  spread  itself  and  rapture  us 
with  its  beauty. 

And  now  comes  the  cry  of  the  wild  goose :  ' '  Honk  ! 
Honk  !  Honk  ! ' '  Looking  up  we  see  a  long  line  of  them 
approaching  high  overhead.  Crack !  go  the  guns  and 
away  go  the  geese  leaving  none  of  their  company  behind. 
Down  we  dodge  again  and  another  flock  comes  in  sight. 
As  before,  another  go  of  the  guns  and  another  go  of 
the  geese ;  and  thus  flock  after  flock  fly  over  us  in  their 
peculiar  wedge-shape  order,  but  all  too  high.  However, 
we  venture  another  crack  at  them.  This  time  one  is  seen 
to  drop  down  a  little,  recover  himself,  get  back  into  the 
flock,  drop  again  a  few  yards,  and  then,  to  our  surprise, 
tumble  heels  over  head,  striking  the  earth  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  away.     A  grain  of  buckshot  did  the  work. 

The  morning  flight  is  over  and  only  one  goose  is 
bagged.  Now  we  munch  a  few  apples  and  take  the 
setter  dogs  and  start  for  the  gamey  prairie  chicken, 
which  out  here  is  really  the  pin-tailed  grouse  that  goes 
before  civilization,  while  the  regular  prairie  hen  follows 
civilization.  The  first  bird  that  is  flushed  is  taken  by 
the  youngest  shot,  my  son  James — boy  of  15  years — and 
beautifully  stopped.  The  second  bird  is  similarly  treated 
by  the  same  gunner.  The  birds  now  are  popping  up  all 
around,  and  we  all  get  our  share. 

56 


if 


T 


We  go  back  to  the  car,  have  breakfast,  and  off  we 
tramp  to  Crane  Lake,  about  four  miles  away.     Reaching 
the  water,   we  find  it   literally  covered   in  places  with 
ducks,  snipe,  geese,  yellow  legs,  pelicans,   curlew  and 
plover.     A  few  shots  started  the  whole  aggregation  in 
motion— mallards,    plover    and   Wilson    snip    begin   to 
tumble  until  we  are  loaded  with  all  we  can  carry.     A 
gunner  away  off  across  the  prairie  is  heard  to  fire  two 
barrels,  then  to  shout,  jump,  run,  and  throw  his  hands 
up.     No  one  seemed  to  know  what  was  disturbing  him, 
but  in  a  moment  we  see  two  dogs  coming  at  a  furious 
rate.     No;   one  is  a  coyote,  the  other  is  a  dog  in  full 
chase.     Four  guns  are  discharged  with  No.  5  shot  at  the 
slinking  coyote,   but  he   gets   out   of  danger   in   a  few 
minutes.     Then  a  monster  bird  comes  flapping  leisurely 
around  the  shore.     It  i.s  a  pelican,  and,  as  if  to  tease  us 
and  waste  our  shells,  he  flaps  .serenely  by  in  front  of  each 
gunner  .several  times,  each  time  getting  the  contents  of 
shells  from  No.  5  down  to  buckshot.     He  is  hit  from 
every  angle,  some  twenty-five  shells  in  all  having  been 
fired  at  him.     We  could  hear  the  shot  strike  and  then 
drop  into  the  water,  and  yet  Mr.  Pelican  is  still  "winking 
the  other  eye"  and  will  continue  to  wink  it  at  anything 
less  than  a  rifle. 

With  our  game  belts  loaded  to  their  fullest  capacity 
(mine  must  have  weighed  forty  pounds,  although  it  felt 
like  a  ton),  we  started  back,  killing  more  prairie  chickens 
on  the  road,  and  arriving  in  time  for  dinner  (five  o'clock), 
having  been  out  just  twelve  hours.  What  exhilaration 
was  crowded  into  those  twelve  hours  !  One  who  has 
never  been  out  in  this  rarified  highly  electric  atmosphere 


i;  j 
li 

J'' 


A 


in 


ij 


cannot  understand  or  appreciate  the  glories  of  sucli  a 
hunt  on  such  a  day — the  sun  comfortably  warm,  with  a 
cool  wind  waving  the  rich  prairie  grass  and  rippling  the 
water  so  that  it  shone  from  the  distance  like  burnished  sil- 
ver. Along  the  edges  of  the  sloughs  which  empty  into  the 
lake  the  green  willows,  stirred  with  the  wind,  were  waving 
their  graceful  limbs,  while  the  bright  prairie  flowers  and 
the  sage  brush  did  their  part  toward  making  a  picture 
hard  to  match  and  not  easy  to  be  forgotten . 

After  dinner  we  had  singing,  whistling  (by  as  good 
a  whistler  as  ever  "cocked  a  lip")  and  piano  playing 
(two  of  the  ladies  being  good  musicians).  When  our 
concert  was  over  and  we  were  about  retiring,  a  knock 
was  heard  at  the  car  door,  and  the  members  of  the  only 
family  residing  within  miles  of  the  station  were  announced 
as  callers.  So  again  the  strains  of  one  of  Beethoven's 
immortal  sonatas  and  a  nocturne  of  Chopin's  were  invoked 
to  entertain  the  visitors,  who  were  two  ladies  and  a  gen- 
tleman, the  latter  superintending  a  ranch  of  10,000  acres. 
The  latest  fashions,  the  price  of  wheat  (54  cents  a  bushel) 
the  climate,  the  habits  of  the  wild  fowl  around  the  lake, 
were  discussed.  After  a  pleasant  two  hours'  entertain- 
ment the  visitors  were  shown  to  the  car  door,  saying  it 
was  the  pleasantest  night  they  had  ever  spent  in  their 
lives,  and  so  ended  our  day's  hunt  and  pleasure  at  Crane 
Lake,  Assiniboia  Territory. 

For  months  there  was  no  rain  in  the  regions  guiuied 
over  by  our  party  and  we  pursued  our  sport  without  alloy 
or  hindrance.  When  we  were  on  the  Frazer  River,  in 
Vancouver,  six  of  our  party  who  had  started  away  on  a 
hunt  after  caribou  and  bears,  returned   to   the  car  on 

58 


niQl^ 


Sunday,  after  a  trip  of  seven  days,  during  which  time  they 

rode  130  miles  over  an  ahnost  impenetrable  country,  and 

among  the   mountains  some  4500  feet  above  tide  level. 

For  eight   miles  of  that  distance  the  road  was  so  rough 

that  horses  could  not  be  taken  through,  and  the  camp 

stuff  had  to  be  dragged  and  pitched  over  fallen  timber, 

around  rocks,  under  rocks  and  over  rocks.     One  of  the 

party  claims  this  to  be  his  twenty-second  annual  hunting 

trip,  and  he  vows  he  never  saw  anything  to  equal  it  for 

roughness  and  difficulties.     They  bristled  with  every  step. 

One   caribou   and   three   deer   were    shot,    and   as   they 

couldn't  drag  their  game  out  of  the  country  after  killing 

it,  they  gave  up  the  hunt  as  a  bad  job  and  returned  to 

the  car,  having  taken  three  days  to  go  up  the  mountains 

and  two  to  return. 

Two  of  the  hunters,  Me.ssrs.  W.  E.  Harmon  and  J. 
G.  Brewer,  of  Boston,  had  come  out  determined  to  get 
some  big  game,  even   if  they  had  to  go  alone  after  it. 
They  hired  an  Indian  guide  and  a  cook,  got  pack  horses 
and  provisions  and  again  started  out  into  the  mountains 
where  they  proposed  hunting  big  horn  sheep  up  above 
the  snow  line.     They  made  their  way  through  from  Can- 
adian territory  into  the  United  States,  arriving  at  Spokane, 
Washington   a  distance  of  245  miles,  camping  up  in  the 
snow  for  several   days,  climbing  around  snow  peaks  in 
moccasins,  but  always  trying  to  keep  face  to  the  wind. 
They  finally  succeeded  in  killing  four  mountain  sheep 
and  three  deer,  but  the   hardships   and   exposure  they 
endured,  as  evidenced  by  their  torn  flesh  and  clothing, 
will  keep  them  from  trying  it  again  for  some  time  at  least. 
As  years  glide  by  and  civilization  approaches  nearer  and 

59 


ii! 


I     !'l 


^  a:i 


<l 


ii 


IS 


\ 


'I 


"I 


■  . 

^1 


h 


nearer  to  the  jjreat  mountain  ranges,  the  l)ig  horns  and 
wild  goats  of  the  snow-covered  peaks  are  pushed  farther 
and  farther  I)ack,  so  that  it  will  not  he  long  before  these 
nimble-footed  and  beautiful  creatures  will  follow  the  fate 
of  the  buffalo. 

At  Sicanious,  a  town  of  about  one  hundred  people, 
on  the  main  line  of  the  C.  P.  R.  in  British  Columbia, 
lives  Colonel  Forester,  who  was  in  China  when  the  great 
rebellion  broke  out  in  which  (General  (iordon  won  his 
fame.  Colonel  Forester  was  recjuested  by  the  foreign 
merchants  in  China  to  organize  and  drill  what  forces 
could  be  hastily  gathered  up,  and  to  take  charge  of  the 
defense,  which  he  did  so  successfully  that  he  was  offered 
supreme  command  of  the  forces  operating  against  the 
rebels.  He  declined,  however,  in  favor  of  General  Gor- 
don. He  has  a  large  number  of  decorations,  presents  and 
letters  testifying  to  his  bravery  and  executive  ability,  and 
is  quietly  and  modestly  living  out  the  remnant  of  his  days 
in  this  lonely  hamlet. 

The  scenery  along  the  Frazer  River  is  of  the  wildest, 
most  interesting  and  most  startling  character.  Fabulous 
amounts  of  money  were  spent  in  the  construction  of  this 
part  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway.  For  a  great  dis- 
tance it  is  a  succession  of  tunnels,  trestles,  bridges  and 
deep  rock  cuttings,  the  line  clinging  to  the  bald  sides  of 
the  mountains  and  overlooking  the  Frazer  River  that 
rushes  along  seething  and  foaming,  and  in  some  places  a 
thousand  feet  below.  On  the  opposite  side  is  the  old 
government  road,  which  was  made  necessary  years  ago 
by  reason  of  the  gold  excitement  on  this  river,  and  also 
to  facilitate  the  valuable  salmon  fishing.     The  road  is  now 

60 


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•?^ 


rapidly  goinji^  to  ruin.  We  passed  thousntids  of  frames 
of  fishing  tents  left  standing  by  their  Indian  owners. 
Wherever  the  river  narrowed  to  a  gorge,  there  they 
could  be  seen  in  the  most  inaccessible  positions  and  fixed 
on  the  rocks  like  so  many  barnacles.  How  the  Indians 
managed  to  get  there  and  stay  there  is  hard  to  imagine. 


ALLEGA8H    RIVtR,    HEADWATERS   OF    RIVER   ST.    JOHN,    CANADA. 

The  town  of  Vancouver  is  experiencing  a  real  estate 
fever  of  a  very  acute  and  inflammatory  character.  This 
is  all  owing  to  its  being  the  terminus  of  the  Canadian 
Pacific  and  also  of  the  magnificent  line  of  steamers  run- 
ning to  China  and  Japan.  The  town  has  a  population  of 
about  15,000,  is  situated  on  a  fine  bay,  with  a  rich  mineral, 
lumber  and  agricultural  country  tributary  to  it.  The  grit 
and  enterprise  displayed  there  is  such  that  even  Phila- 
delphia might  copy  with  advantage.  The  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad  wants  to  have  an  entrance  there  in  order 
to  reap  a  share  in  the  rich  Oriental  trade  pouring  through 

61 


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the  town  from  the  great  steamers  plying  to  Japan.  What 
did  this  little  town  of  15,000  people  do  to  encourage  the 
designs  of  the  railway  people  ?  They  put  the  question  to 
popular  vote,  and  the  result  was  that  they  decided  to  give 
the  railroad  $300,000  as  a  bonus  to  enter  the  town. 

Think  of  it,  you  Philadelpnia  Councilmen  ;  you,  who 
voted  so  often  and  worked  so  hard  to  keep  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio  out  of  the  city ;  you  who  kept  the  Philadelphia 
and  Reading  bowing  and  scraping  before  your  committees 
for  years ;  you  who  kept  the  Belt  Line  so  long  out  in  the 
cold,  and  you  who  fought  so  long  and  fiercely  against 
elevated  railroads  in  our  "Traction"  ridden  city.  Ah. 
there  are  some  profitable  lessons  that  may  be  learned 
by  getting  away  from  home,  and  probably  there  is  none 
that  needs  a  lesson  of  that  sort  more  than  the  average 
Philadelphia  Councilman.  Let  us  hope  and  tru.-,t,  how- 
ever, tjiat  the  Quaker  city  has  got  through  with  her  nap 
and  that  her  eyes  are  open  wide  enough  to  see  that  when 
railroads  knock  at  her  doors  for  admission  they  should  be 
welcomed  not  repelled. 

We  arrived  at  Morley,  Alberta,  September  25th. 
The  town  consists  of  one  store,  three  dwellings  and  the 
railroad  station,  having  a  total  population  of  about 
twenty.  It  is  of  importance  by  reason  of  its  being  the 
distributing  point  for  the  reservation  of  the  tribe  of 
Stoney  Indians.  Large  herds  of  cattle  are  pastured  there 
by  the  Canadian  Government  to  provide  a  weekly  supply 
of  meat  during  the  year  for  the  Indians,  and  the 
annual  payment  of  five  dollars  per  head  is  made  and 
blankets  distributed  in  accordance  with  the  treaty  stip- 
ulations. 

62 


=7 


The  Indians  are  settled  along  the  valley  of  the  Bow 
River,  some  in  tepees,  but  most  of  them  insubstantial  and 
well-built  log  houses,  each  family  having  a  small  cul- 
tivated patch  of  ground  on  which   they  raise  potatoes, 
cabbage  and  other  vegetables,  while  their  ponies  are  hob- 
bled near  by  and  their  cattle  range  the  prairie.     They 
seem  to  spend  a  happy  contented  life  altogether  diiTerent 
from  the  non-treaty  Indians,  whose  bad  traits  I  observed  so 
markedly  in  Maple  Creek,  and  whose  good  qualities  were 
not  to  be  discovered  with  the  naked  eye.     I  talked  with 
a  number  of  those  who  spoke  English,  and  spoke  it  quite 
as  well  as  the  majority  of  white  men .     They  had  traveled 
some,  could  read  and  write,  treated  their  wives  and  fam- 
ilies with  consideration,  and,  moreover,  had  accumulated 
a  little  wealth  outside  of  the  Government  allowance. 

One  Indian  told  me  that  he  had  not  seen  his  father 
since  he  was  a  boy.  until  this  summer,  when  his  father 
wrote  him  a  letter  asking  him  to  visit  him  at  a  point  a 
long  distance  still  further  north.  He  took  a  team  of 
horses  and  drove  there,  the  round  trip  occupying  two 
weeks  of  traveling.  He  spent  one  week  with  his  parents, 
and  spoke  of  them  very  affectionately  and  dutifully. 

The  Stoney  tribe  speak  the  "Cree"  language  and 
belong  to  that  race  of  brave  figliters.  A  Mr.  McDougal, 
who  resides  near  Morley,  has  translated  the  Bible  and  the 
new  Testament  (as  well  as  a  book  of  hymns  )  into  the  Cree 
characters  (which  are  said  to  be  very  simple  and  easily 
learned),  and  he  preaches  to  them  and  instructs  them  in 
their  own  tongue.  He  is  a  wealthy  rancher,  one  of  the 
oldest  residents  and  has  seen  the  prairies  when  they 
teemed  with  roaming  herds  of  buffalo,  elk,  antelope  and 

63 


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deer     His  house   contains    more    stuffed    specimens   of 
"  animated  nature  "  than  any  other  in  this  territory. 

Some  years  since  an  enthusiastic  young  woman  came 
out  here  as  a  missionary  from  Massachusetts.  She  was 
very  successful  in  her  work,  and  among  her  converts  was 
a  "noble  Indian,"  whom  she  induced  to  go  to  college, 
where  he  studied  faithfully  and  well,  and  on  graduating 
was  ordained  to  the  ministry.  He  went  back  to  Morley, 
made  love  to  the  young  missionary,  was  accepted  and 
married  her.  They  are  happy,  and,  whi^e  the  wife's  fam- 
ily is  said  to  have  ostracised  her,  she  seems  to  be  satisfied. 

Thirteen  of  our  party,  including  four  ladies,  started 
on  a  chicken  hunt  to  a  point  some  twelve  miles  from  this 
place.     As  the  Indians  indulge  in  shooting  chickens  from 
the    saddles   of  their   ponies,  and    thus    depleting  their 
numbers,  it  was  necessary  to  take  teams  and  drive  this 
distance  before  we  found  the  birds  which  even  then  were 
in  only  limited  numbers  and  as  wild  as  hares.     When  we 
arrived  on  the  shooting  ground  it  was  nearly  noon,  and 
as  the  birds  had  finished  their  morning  feeding  and  were 
found  on  the  edge  of  the  brush  fringing  a  little  stream, 
we  had  hard  work  getting  more  than  a  glimpse  of  them 
before  they  would  be  out  of  sight.     Taking  long  flights 
made  it  slow  shooting.     However  we  made  a  fiiirly  good 
bag,  and,    as  it  is  always  the  practice  of   this  party  of 
sportsmen  and  sportswomen  to  shoot  only  what  they  can 
use  to  advantage,  we  gave  up  the  sport  and  the  hard  work 
in  good  season  and  enjoyed  a  glorious  ride  back,  watch- 
ing the  forms  and  ever-changing  shadows  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  which,  though  eighteen  miles  distant,  seemed 
close  enough  to  be  reached  in  a  half-hour's  walk. 

64 


ri 


We  were  told  that  at  Bow  River  all  we  had  to  do  was 
to  throw  ill  our  fish  lines,  and  with  any  sort  of  a  fly  we 
could  catch  all  the  speckled  trout  we  could  handle,  and 
that  Morley  was  the  point  on  the  Bow  which  gave  the 
best  results;  but— how  often  these  "  buts  "  come  in  to 
upset  trout- fishing  calculation,  and  this  particular  "but" 
did  it  effectually— a  roadniaster  on  the  Canadian  Pacific 
had  been  drowned  in  the  treacherous  current  and  the 
authorities,  hoping  to  bring  his  body  to  the  surface, 
exploded  dynamite  in  all  the  pools  up  and  down  the 
river  for  five  miles.     These  explosions,  though  they  did 

not  raise  the  body,  certainly  did  raise  the  d 1  with  the 

fish,  killing  nearly  all  of  them.  And  thus,  once  more  our 
fond  hopes  and  fancy  of  hauling  in  the  speckled  beauties 
on  our  seven-ounce  rods  were  scattered  to  the  winds. 
After  a  whole  day's  throwing  and  coaxing  with  all  sorts 
of  flies,  minnows  and  bait  we  succeeded  in  landing  only  a 
paltrj^  dozen  or  so. 

Ten  persons  having  lost  their  lives  in  the  river  near 
here  within  a  few  months,  the  ranchers,  cowboys  and  even 
the  Indians  hold  it  very  much  in  awe.  The  water  is  icy 
cold,  from  the  melting  snow  and  ice  rushing  down  from 
the  Rocky  Mountains;  the  current  is  swift,  full  of  eddies, 
rapids  and  whirlpools;  and  the  stone  on  the  bottom  slip- 
pery as  an  eel.  Woe  betide  the  man  who  should  lose  his 
footing  in  fording  or  get  over  head  in  it  in  any  shape ;  his 
chances  of  getting  out  would  be  slim  indeed. 

We  arrived  in  Banff"  early  in  the  morning  and  slipped 
out  before  breakfast  to  see  the  town  and  spy  out  the 
points  of  attraction  which  the  Canadian  Pacific  has  set 
such  store  by.     The  town  is  nil— nein— nix.     A  few  log 

65 


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huts,  a  small  brick  church,  a  dozen  or  more  frame  shanty 
stores,  and  stumps  and  fallen  trees  galore. 

But  the  attractions  are  there,  and  they  are  attractions, 
too,  with  no  nonsense  about  them.  "Whatever  the  com- 
pany has  advertised  to  perform,  that  it  will  perform,  or 
your  money  refunded,"  would  apply  very  well.  The 
luxurious  C.  P.  R.  R.  Hotel,  about  two  miles  from  the 
station,  newly  built,  superbly  furnished  and  lighted, 
spacious,  comfortable  and  well  kept,  is  a  "number  one  " 
drawing  card.  A  sanitarium,  a  few  pretty,  small  hotels, 
glorious  drives  among  glorious  mountains  capped  with 
everlasting  snow,  a  park,  twenty -six  miles  long  by  ten 
miles  wide,  embracing  parts  of  the  Bow,  Spray  and  Cas- 
cade Rivers;  the  Hot  Sulphur  Springs,  the  Warm  Sul- 
phur Springs,  bridle  paths  and  walks  up  the  various 
peaks  and  the  unrivaled  landscape  all  aglow  with  the 
brilliant  tints  of  its  autumn  foliage,  make  a  combination 
of  attractions  that  has  already  proved  strong  enough  to 
draw  tourists  from  all  parts  of  this  Continent  and  a  great 
many  from  Europe  as  well — a  fact  that  the  register  at  the 
big  hotel  fully  attests. 

My  choice  in  this  list  of  attractions  was  to  take  a 
warm  sulphur  bath  and  then  scale  a  mountain.  Now 
isn't  it  unique  to  take  a  bath  in  an  enclosure  open  at  the 
top,  where  the  white  caps  of  the  mountains  are  .seen  all 
around  you  and  the  rain  pouring  in  ?  And  yet  we  are 
swimming  in  a  pool  of  sulphur  waif  *  at  the  natural  tem- 
perature of  ninety  degrees,  and  with  plenty  of  room  for 
diving,  fancy  swimming  and  frolics  generally. 

The  mountain  climb  was  equally  worthy  of  remem- 
brance.    I  wasn't  at  all  ambitious  of  "going"  for  one  of 

66 


the  6cKX)  foot  giants.  I  selected  a  modest  1200  foot  fellow 
called  Tunnel  Mountain,  and  in  face  ot  fierce  winds  and 
gusts  of  rain  (which  on  the  higher  peaks  fell  in  the  form 
of  snow)  I  scaled  it  in  about  an  hour  and  a  half.  The 
view  from  the  top  was  as  enchanting  and  ravishing  as 
mortal  eye  ever  rested  on.  Neither  poet  nor  painter 
could  even  faintly  describe  or  picture  it.  Why  should 
I  then,  who  have  not  the  gift  of  either,  attempt  to  do 
what  cannot  be  done?  Suffice  it  to  say,  it  is  imprinted 
on  my  memory  and  likely  to  stay  there. 


ONE   OF   OUR  CAMPS. 


Coming  down,  like  numerous  other  would-be  smart 
ones,  I  thought  it  an  easy  matter  to  leave  the  carefully 
graded  path  and  by  traveling  straight  down  save  time  and 
distance.  Very  soon  my  feet  .slipped  from  under  me  ; 
down  on  my  back  I  slid,  grasping  at  shrubs,  stones  and 
plants   in   my  rapid   descent,   which   kept   up   until   its 

67 


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unpleasant  speed  was  stopped  by  running  into  a  tree; 
With  scratched  hands,  torn  pants,  a  bruised  back  and  a 
little  more  wisdom,  I  concluded  to  keep  to  the  path  for 
the  remainder  of  the  distance. 

Did  it  ever  strike  you  how  many  difficulties  there  are 
to  be  encountered,  the  distances  to  be  covered  and  the 
obstacles  to  be  surmounted  in  the  search  after  speckled 
trout  ?  It  struck  us,  but  not  until  after  we  had  tried  it. 
We  had  so  many  promises  of  good  trout  fishing  on  this 
trip,  with  so  many  disappointments,  that  when  we  reached 
Banff  and  found  that,  although  there  was  any  quantity  of 
trout  there,  it  was  close  season  in  the  park,  and  we 
couldn't  fish,  we  were  about  giving  up  all  idea  of  ever 
seeing  one.  Just  then  we  stumbled  over  a  fellow  who 
told  us  of  a  wonderful  little  lake,  recently  discovered  and 
only  fished  in  for  the  first  time  two  months  ago,  at  Castle 
Mountain,  seventeen  miles  from  Banff. 

On  the  promise  that  it  was  full  of  trout  and  notwith- 
standing the  warning  that  he  doubted  whether  we  could 
rough  it  enough  to  get  there,  we  determined  to  go  and 
find  out  whether  he  was  a  fish  romancer  or  not.  Our  car 
was  pulled  there  in  the  early  morning.  A  guide  had 
come  with  us  from  Banff,  who  filled  us  with  bouncing 
predictions  of  the  luck  we  were  going  to  have  but  kept 
very  dark  about  the  difficulties  and  dangers  of  the  trip. 
Seven  of  us  started  with  him,  unconscious  of  what  was 
before  us.  He  had  led  us  along  a  small  creek  to  a  frail 
crossing  on  a  slippery  fallen  tree,  over  which  one  man 
promptly  tumbled  and  had  to  start  back  for  dry  clothes. 

We  then  came  to  the  Bow  River,  which  here  is  a 
raging  torrent,  deep  and  treacherous.     Stretched  across 

63 


diagonally  was  a  very  long  boom,  made  by  strapping  a 
string  of  two  logs  together  and  held  to  the  shore  by  stout 
wire  cables.  It  is  the  only  crossing  this  side  of  Banff, 
seventeen  miles  away.  On  account  of  the  fierce  rush  of 
waters  this  string  of  logs  was  swaying  up  and  down,  with 
the  boiling  water  surging  over  them  here  and  there,  the 
inner  log  half  covered  with  slimy,  rotten  bark,  that  peeled 
and  slipped  off  under  foot. 

The  guide  had  on  shoes  with  sharp-pointed  spikes, 
which  enabled  him  to  skip  across  the  logs  with  the  ease 
and  grace  of  a  dancing  master;  we  had  on  rubber  boots, 
slippery  as  glass.  There  were  two  logs  reaching  to  the 
boom  and  over  these  the  guide,  seeing  we  were  not  in  his 
"skipping"  condition  advised  us  to  creep  on  our  hands 
and  knees. 

Four  of  us  started  across  with  our  feet  placed  cross-; 
wise  of  the  logs.  On  getting  about  a  third  of  the  way 
over  the  guide  halloed  at  the  top  of  his  voice:  "Look 
out  you  don't  slip  over;  if  you  do,  hang  on  to  the  logs 
like  grim  death  or  you're  a  goner !  Xo  man  can  swim  in 
this  water;  he'd  be  sucked  under  and  into  Davy  Jones' 
locker  'fore  he  could  say  Jack  Robinson  !" 

This  cheerful  bit  of  information  had  the  effect  of 
making  us  doubly  cautious.  By  dint  of  balancing  and 
poising,  and  feeling  with  our  feet  for  the  least  slimy 
places  we  at  last  got  .safely  over.  We  then  had  time  to 
realize  what  idiotic  fools  we  had  been  to  risk  our  lives  on 
such  a  crossing,  and,  for  what  .'—a  few  trout. 

We  mo^i'oned  to  the  three  men  we  left  on  the  other 
side  not  to  attempt  the  passage.  They  signalled  "all 
right,"  and  we  started  ahead.     Afterwards   one   of  the 

69 


three  made  up  his  mind  to  try  it.  He  labored  along  very 
cautiously  until  near  the  middle,  then  over  he  went  into 
the  deep  and  icy  stream.  Fortunately  for  him,  he  fell  on 
the  inside.  He  was  a  strong,  athletic  young  man,  and 
managed  to  throw  an  arm  around  the  inside  log  before  his 
body  could  be  sucked  under,  and  by  an  almost  supei- 
huuian  effort  pulled  himself  on  to  the  boom  again.  Hav- 
ing got  back  safely  he  went  to  the  car  for  a  change  of 
clothes.  To-day  he  is  full  of  thanks  to  Providence  for 
his  narrow  escape,  and  well  he  may  be,  for  his  chance  of 
life  in  that  cauldron  of  ice  water  was — well,  one  in  a 
hundred. 


1:.,. 


I  'I 


CASTINQ  FOR  TROUT  IN  A  FAMOUS  POOL. 


Shortly  after  leaving  the  river  we  struck  a  good  trail 
up  a  mountain  side.  It  ended  at  an  almost  impenetrable 
jungle  of  fire-swept  timber,  over,  under  and  around  which 
we  panted,  perspired  and  labored  for  an  hour;  then  sud- 

70 


denly,  as  if  by  magic,  there  flashed  upon  our  sight  the 
loveliest  little  gem  of  a  lake  imaginable,  circled  around 
by  great  mountains,  with  snow  reaching  nearly  down  to 
the  water.  We  at  once  jointed  our  rods,  and  tried  "first 
and  last"  li\e  grasshoppers,  of  which  we  had  plenty. 
Hardly  had  J.  struck  my  line  into  the  water  when  a 
speckled  beauty  took  the  hook,  and  then  another  and 
another,  and  for  a  couple  of  hours  it  was  nothing  but  a 
swi.sh  of  the  line  and  a  battle  with  the  trout. 

Soon  we  had  as  many  as  we  could  carry.  Mean- 
while, the  other  three  who  were  left,  had,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  the  guide,  who  had  returned  to  help  them,  resur- 
rected an  old  scow  and  crossed.  About  two  o'clock  they 
appeared  with  a  welcome  lunch,  The  car  log  book  of 
game  credits  the  party  with  a  catch  of  some  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  speckled  trout,  certairily  enough  to  last  us 
a  few  days,  as  we  have  them  carefully  packed  away  in 
the  refrigerator. 

Next  morning  our  car  was  coupled  to  the  Pacific 
express  and  hauled  to  that  wonderful  spot,  the  great 
"Selkirk  Glacier."  An  excursion  was  promptly  made  to 
the  glacier,  which  is  said  to  be  seven  miles  long,  two 
miles  broad  and  2000  feet  thick,  of  solid  ice.  A  fine 
object  lesson  is  here  obtained  of  the  resistless  power  of  the 
ice  in  crushing,  ix>wderiiig  and  moving  enormous  masses 
of  rocks.  Avalanches,  landslides  and  terrific  storms  are 
of  such  frequent  occurence  during  the  winter  and  spring 
that  the  occupants  of  the  railroad  hotel  and  station  are  in 
daily  terror  of  their  lives. 

Early  this  morning  a  couple  of  our  sportsmen,  armed 
with   rifles,  started  away  from  the  car  hoping  to  get  a 

71 


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sight  of  a  bear.  Six  of  them — two  grizzlies  and  one  black 
bear,  each  with  a  cub — were  reported  to  be  feeding  on 
berries  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  away  from  the  station. 
In  a  ver)'  few  minutes  three  shots  were  heard,  then  five 
in  rapid  succession,  then  one  shot,  and  we  divined  that  a 
bear  had  .surely  fallen.  Excitement  ran  high  and  all  were 
on  tip-toe  of  expectation,  until  two  hunters  returned — 
without  the  bear. 

It  took  some  time  for  the  truth  to  gleam  through  the 
glamour  surrounding  that  early  morning  encounter  with 
bruin,  and  here  it  is.  A  railway  employee  had  located 
the  bears  and  at  daylight  crept  down  among  the  berry 
bushes  where  they  were  expected  to  feed,  and  patiently 
waited  with  the  determination  of  bringing  one  down. 
The  track  here  makes  a  sharply  defined  horse  shoe  curve, 
and  on  one  arm  of  this  curve  is  a  snow  shed  a  mile  long. 
One  of  our  hunters  had  climbed  on  top  of  this  shed  and 
walked  along  for  half  its  length  when  he  saw  a  bear  come 
out  in  an  open  patch  seven  hundred  yards  away.  Now, 
he  couldn't  get  off  the  shed  without  going  to  the  end  of 
it  and  by  doing  this  he  feared  he  might  lose  sight  of  the 
bear.     So  to  lo.se  no  time  he  commenced  firing. 

The  other  hunter  saw  with  his  glass  a  man  down  in 
the  berry  patch  and  thought  hunter  number  one  was 
shooting  at  him.  The  man  in  the  berry  patch  seemed  to 
think  so  too,  and  after  his  ears  had  listened  to  the  clo.se 
whisi-i  of  seven  or  eight  bullets  he  emerged  from  the 
bushes  and  walking  up  to  hunter  number  one  opened  up 
on  him  a  battery  of  Western  words  that  fairly  smoked 
with  brimstone.  I'll  omit  them  here,  only  saying  that 
they  conveyed  the  idea  that  the  bullets  had  nearly  hit 


-2 


liini.  "Besides,"  he  said,  "  how  the  devil  do  you  expect 
to  shoot  bears  from  the  top  of  a  snow  shed  three  (luarters 
of  a  mile  away?" 

It  took  lots  of  oily  words  to  smooth  out  the  berry 
man's  waves  of  indignation.  After  warning  hunter  num- 
ber one  that  if  he  valued  the  integrity  of  his  own  hide  he 
had  better  not  try  that  sort  of  fun  again,  but  keep  his 
bullets  in  their  pouch,  where  they  evidently  belonged. 
he  finally  agreed  to  an  armistice  and  a  drink  of  whisky. 

Number  two  had  in  the  meantime  followed  the  bear 
away  down  the  river  but  lost  the  trail  and  dejectedly 
returned,  adding  his  opinion  to  that  of  the  berry  bush 
man :  "The  idea  of  a  fellow  trying  to  shoot  a  bear  from 
the  top  of  a  snow  shed  and  across  a  whole  county !" 

And  now  we  come  to  Lake  Okanagan  to  try  our 
guns  on  the  wild  geese  and  ducks. 

%  the  way,  like  the  immortal  Mrs.  O'Urien,  who, 
when  she  had  acquired  wealth  and  position  in  .society  in- 
sisted upon  calling  herself  Mrs.  O'Brion.  with  the  accent 
on  the  last  syllable.  Lake  Okanagati  is  not  Okanagan  at  all, 
but  is  pronounced  Okanawgan,  accent  on  the  third  sylla- 
ble.    It  is  named  after  a  tribe  of  Indians  fa  branch  of  the 
Chinook  race).     It  is  about  eighty  miles  long  and  from 
two  to  twelve  miles  in   breadth,  well   filled   with  silver 
trout,  salmon  trout,  chub  and  lake  trout.     The  growing 
town  of  Vernon,  with  a  present  population  of  about  four 
hundred,  is  five  miles  from  it.     The  lake  is  bordered  by 
a  remarkably  fine   piece   of  ranching   and    agricultural 
country,  and  on  account  of  its  manifold  attractions— the 
depth   and  coldness   of   its   waters,    the   beauty   of   the 

73 


i'r. 


\.  < 


'if 


>iar! 


scenery,  the  wealth  of  wild  fowl  and  its  wonderful 
climate— it  is  destined  to  become  a  prominent  summer 
resort  for  residents  of  the  Pacific  coast  near  Vancouver 
and  Victoria. 

The  lake  and  the  town  of  Vernon  are  reached  by  a 
branch  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railroad  fifty-one  miles 
long.  This  branch,  though  in  operation  but  a  short  time 
(it  was  opened  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  last  June)  is  said  to 
be  already  paying  handsomely.  Previous  to  the  building 
of  the  C.  P.  R.  R.  main  line  all  merchandise  had  to  be 
transported  on  pack  horses  a  distance  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  from  Fort  Hope,  on  the  Frazer  River.  The 
item  of  freight  was  then  a  very  serious  one,  as  it  amounted 
to  eleven  cents  per  pound  on  sugar,  nails,  hardware, 
coffee  and  all  heavy  articles,  and  a  proportionately  higher 
rate  on  more  bulky  merchandise.  It  must  be  from  this 
reason  then,  that,  although  the  railroad  has  been  opened 
over  three  months  and  the  freight  charges  are  very  mod- 
erate, the  merchants  have  not  got  used  to  the  changed 
condition  of  affairs. 

Everything  is  absurdly  high.  You  are  charged 
twenty-five  cents  for  a  shave,  fifty  cents  for  a  pint  bottle 
of  apollinaris  or  Bass'  ale,  and  corresponding  prices  for 
everything  else.  But  the  livery  stable  men  are  the  real 
Shylocks  of  the  town .  A  physician  was  dilating  upon  the 
qualities  of  a  very  good  young  mare  he  had  just  bought 
for  ten  dollars,  and  assured  me  he  could  buj'  anj-^  number 
of  them  at  that  price.  I  thought,  as  horse  flesh  was  so 
cheap,  I  should  be  able  to  enjoy  many  drives  and  see  the 
country  without  injuring  my  pocket.  The  thought  was 
hardly  a  sound  one.     At  my  first  trial  of  it,  the  stable 


74 


'^m' 


man  charged  me  five  dollars  for  a  very  sorry  looking 
horse  and  a  dilapidated  buggy  whose  years  might  have 
equaled  those  of  the  "  Deacon's  one  horse  shay."  The 
charge  for  a  pair  of  similar  looking  animals  and  a  similar 
looking  wagon  I  found  to  be  ten  dollars.  Such  modesty 
is  rare. 

We  have  been  here  a  week,  and,  while  there  are 
three  livery  stables,  all  doing  a  rushing  trade,  we  have 

never  been  able  to 
see  the  proprietor 
of  one  of  them  to 
know  whether  the 
charges  exacted 
from  us  are  war- 
ranted or  not,  as 
'^^^^^^^^^^^^■^^^^^^^^        each  of  them  seems 

to  be    more   inter- 
ested   in    shooting 
or  horse  racing  than  in  looking  after  his  business. 

This  is  truly  a  wonderful  belt  of  country,  the  most 
fertile  we  have  yet  seen.  The  presbyterian  minister  here 
(lately  preaching  at  Rutledge,  Pa.)  tells  us  that  the  soil 
in  places  is  fully  fifteen  feet  deep  and  of  the  richest  black 
loam.  The  wheat  averages  over  thirty  bushels  to  the 
acre  and  weiglis  sixty-five  to  sixty-six  pounds  to  the 
bushel.  They  make  no  rotation  in  planting.  It  is  wheat 
and  wheat  year  after  year.  We  saw  a  field  just  harvested 
that  produced  thirty-two  liushels  to  the  acre  which  had 
been  sown  with  wheat  for  twenty-three  consecutive  years, 
and  another  field  of  forty  acres  that  last  year  had  not  been 
sown,    but   simply  ploughed   under,    with   the    previous 


PULLING    THE   CANOE    OVER   SHALLOW    WATER. 


I 


'.1    ! 


ill 


1  i-'* 

;].,|'i 


'It; 


t-i 


3'ear's  stubble  on  it,  that  netted  its  owner  (a  half-breed 
Indian)  S700.  Fruits,  hops  and  vegetables  are  equally 
prolific. 

The  climate  is  dry,  with  hot  days,  cold  nights  and 
few  sudden  changes.  Even  now  the  days  are  as  hot  as  in 
July  and  the  nights  cold  enough  for  November.  The 
only  doctor  in  the  neighborhood  says  he  never  saw  nor 
did  he  ever  read  of  such  a  healthy  district.  Children 
don't  get  sick.  People  eat  well,  sleep  well  and  live  long, 
and  the  only  business  on  which  a  doctor  can  earn  his 
liv'ing  comes  from  accidents  or  from  jiractice  incidental  to 
the  natural  increase  in  the  population. 

The  Earl  of  A1)erdeen,  Governor-General  of  Canada, 
has  a  ranch  four  miles  from  here,  which  is  managed  by  his 
brother-in-law,  the  Hon.  Major  Majoribanks.  He  also 
has  another  ranch  of  several  thousand  acres  at  Mission,  a 
.settlement  at  the  other  end  of  Lake  Okanagan.  His  lord- 
ship ov*'ns  almost  countless  herds  of  cattle  and  sheep  and 
droves  of  horses  and  pigs.  A  couple  of  young  men,  rela- 
tives of  the  Duke  of  Argyle,  nre  now  here  shooting. 
So,  between  the  noble  liarl's  adherents  and  his  Cirace 
the  Duke's  relatives,  the  little  town  is  full  of  fuss  and 
feathers.  It's  "Me  Lud "  this  and  his  "Grace  the 
Duke"  that  on  every  side.  The  Jiarl's  lower  ranch,  at 
Mission,  is  to  be  irrigated  and  rented  out  in  plotj  of 
twent\'  acres  or  more  to  fruit  farmers,  for  which  it  is  said 
to  be  peculiarly  adapted. 

Four  of  us  have  been  having  good  sport  during  the 
past  week,  shooting  prairie  chickens,  ruflled  grouse  and 
wild  geese.  A  little  lake  four  miles  away  is  almost  cov- 
ered during   daytime  with  the   geese   and    ducks.     The 

76 


,    iJi 


geese  leave  the  lake  every  niorni.ig  ruul  evei)i„g  to  feed 
on  the  stubble  left  standing  i„  the  wheat  fields,  and  on 
their  passage  to  and  fro  comes  the  only  chance  to  shoot 
them.     On  arriving  here  the  chief  hunter  now  left  with 
our    car,  Mr.    A.  B.   F.  Kinney,  of    Worcester,   Mass 
selected  favorable  locations  for  sinking  pits  to  shoot  from, 
and  we  all  went  to  work  digging  with  spades  and  a  rail- 
road crowbar.     After  the  ploughed  surface  was  removed 
the  earth  was  found  to  be  almost  solid  black  loam,  which 
reached  dowt:  as  far  as  we  went,  nearly  fix-e  feet,  and 
awfully  hard  digging  it  was,  as  our  blistered  hands  gave 
proof.     When  the  pits  were  dug  a  couple  of  dozen  sheet- 
iron   decoy  geese  were   set  out;    then   we  covered  the 
edges  of  the  pits  with  wheat  .straw,   hiding  everv  Inrnj) 
of   fresh-turned  earth,    ^  that   nothm^  could  U   seen 
which   would    excite    the  suspicion   of  the  geese.     We 
had  scarcely  finished  our  ta.sk  when  we  hear<l   their  first 
"honk!   honk!"     Down  into  tl;e  pits  we  tumbled  like 
gophers,  and  crouching  together  with  scarcely  breathing 
room,  we  .saw  flock  after  flock  sail  over  without  giving 
much  attention  to  our  painted  sham  gee>e.    Then  another 
flock  came  which  had  more  curiosity.     To  and  fro  they 
sailed   by  us,  circling  around  to  find  out  if  things  were 
"on  the  .s,i«are.     each  circle  bringing  them  lovver  and 
lower  until  we  were  satisfied  they  were  within  gunshot. 
Then  up  we  jumped  and  blazed  away.     And  the  geese 
-well,  nothing  seemed  to  have  happened  to  them,  they 
flew  oft-  apparently  untouched,  but  only  apparentlv:  we 
saw  one  of  them  lag  behind,  then  drcp  a  little,  then  rise 
to  the  flock,  and  in  a  second  or  two  tumble  headlong  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  away.     Another  faltered  and  fell  a  halt 


I*    '■ 


a  mile  away.  We  found  the  first  with  the  aid  of  a  dog, 
hidden  in  a  bunch  of  grass ;  the  other,  for  which  we 
searched  in  vain,  was  found  by  a  cowboy  two  days  after. 

Thus  early  in  the  morning  and  evening  we  have  been 
in  the  pits  enjoying  this  most  exciting  sport,  and  have 
bagged  enough  geese  to  supply  us  with  all  we  can  use, 
and  an  occasional  one  to  give  away.      At  this  season  of 
the  year  they  are  fat  and  delicious  eating. 

Six  gentleuKMi  of  our  party  started  on  Mondaj'  of  last 
week  on  a  "  big  game  hunt"  into  the  district  of  the  Gold 
range  of  mountains  abounding  in  caribou,  grizzly  and 
black  bear,  Rocky  Mountain  goats  and  mountain  sheep. 
They  took  with  them  three  Indian  guides,  a  white  cook 
and  a  squaw  to  cook  for  the  guides.  As  their  camp  outfit 
had  to  be  carried  on  pack  horses  sixl\ -five  miles,  when 
they  started  off  they  made  a  very  respectable  cavalcade. 
The  roads,  as  well  as  the  bunting  yround,  are  said  to  be 
of  the  roughest  description,  so  whatever  game  they 
bring  back  tiiey  will  surely  earn,  particularly  when  it  is 
said  that  bef(Lre  leaving  they  were  compelled  to  take  out 
a  license  to  shoot  deer,  costing  $50  each.  As  far  as  we 
can  learn  this  license  or  tax  is  only  levied  on  Americans 
(Yankees  we  are  called  here)  while  Knglishmen,  French- 
men or  men  of  any  other  nationality  are  never  required  to 
take  out  a  license.  If  this  be  reallj'  so,  it  is  only  another 
proof  of  Canada's  vexatious  and  nagging  policy  towards 
her  big  and  wealthy  neighbor.  It  also  proves  how  short- 
sighted they  are,  as  such  a  policy  will  never  bring  recip- 
rocity, which  all  Canadians  sigh  for,  but  retaliation,  which 
they  can  ill  afford,  and  which  is  as  unseemly  among 
nations  as  it  is  among  men. 


78 


While   in   the   ticket  office    at   Vancouver,    British 
Columbia,  we  were  much  amused   at   a  party  of  three 
Enghshmen  belonging  to  the  nobility  of  England,  who 
were  trying  to   engage   a   compartment   on   one  of  the 
C.    P.    R.    R.'s   first-class   cars.     They   couldn't    "you 
know"  travel   in   a   car  with  ordinary  people;    but  the 
ticket  man  assured  them  there  was  nothing  else  for  them 
to  do,  as  there  were  no  compartments,  and  the  company 
could  not  arrange  one  before  the  train  started,  no  matter 
how  important  it  might  be  to  them. 

They  agreed  to  pay  an  extra  fare  if  the  smoking  end 
of  the  car  could  be  reserved  for  them  and  they  authorised 
the  conductor  to  tell  the  passengers  that  thev  were  cholera 
suspects  or  small-pox  patients  or  anytliing  he  liked  in 
order  to  keep  the  "common  people"  away  from  them. 
But  all  to  no  purpose.  There  was  but  one  alternative- 
take  their  "medicine"  or  stay  behind. 

It  was  somewhat  amusing  to  hear  their  criticisms  on 
Uncle  Sam's  "frightfully  vulga'  country  and  beastly 
traveling  don't  you  know. ' ' 

The  route  from  Vancouver,  in  British  Columbia,  to 
Seattle,  Wash.,  lies  through  a  rough,  heavilv  timbered 
district,  where  the  trees  measure  anywhere  from  three 
feet  to  six  feet  in  diameter.  These  are  of  the  red  cedar 
variety  and  are  being  rapidly  sawed  down  and  cut  into 
lumber  and  shingles. 

Why  it  is  I  cannot  tell,  but  it  certainly  /s  neverthe- 
less-! mean  that  the  railway  is  literally  lined  with  a  row 
of  bursted  booming  towns;  each  with  a  bladder-like 
name,  a  big  hotel,  a  public  hall,  maybe,  and  lots  of 
saloons  flaring  suggestive  signs,  such  as   the  "  Bla/ing 

79 


f 


Stump  Saloon,"  "  New  Idea  Saloon,"  "Three  of  a  Kind 
Saloon,"  "  Let  her  go  Gallagher  Saloon."  etc.,  etc. 

Convincing  evidence  of  "bustedness"  looms  up  every- 
where. Streets  deserted,  dwellings  vacated  and  closed, 
and  no  visible  sign  of  life,  except  it  be  the  .shingle  mills 
and  the  woodchoppers'  shanties  that  lie  on  the  outskirts 
and  away  from  the  "avenues"  and  "boulevards"  that 
grace  these  silent  towns. 


•(,,1' 


m 


A    CAMP    WITH    COOK-MOUSE    TO    THE    LEFT    AND    DINING    TABLE    TO    THE    RIGHT. 

A  dealer  in  real  estate  in  Seattle  told  us  that  the 
growth  of  that  town  had  been  very  much  curtailed  by 
heav}'  investments  in  those  mushroom  growths  which 
offer  little  or  no  chance  of  any  returns.  Seattle  and 
Tacoma  are  less  than  forty  miles  apart,  and  as  both  are 
ambitious,  growing  towns,  there  is  necessarily  great  busi- 
ness rivalry  and  bitter  jealousy.  Each  city  claims  the 
largest  population ,  business  and  wealth  :  each  claims  the 

So 


1 1 


brightest  prospects  for  the  future,  and  each  also  delights 
to  decry  the  boasted  advantages  of  the  other.  Our 
candid  and  unprejudiced  opinion  is  that  Seattle  is  by  all 
odds  the  most  enterprising  and  promising  of  the  two. 
Certainly  there  is  much  more  life  there  than  in  Tacoma, 
and  more  public  spirit. 

Tacoma  seems  to  have  been  nursed  and  coddled  so 
much  by  the  Northern  Pacific  that,  in  a  measure,  she  has 
lost  her  independence.  On  the  other  hand  Seattle  has 
had  to  scratch  and  fight  for  her  railroad  favors,  and 
fought  so  well  that  she  has  fairly  compelled  the  Northern 
Pacific  to  come  off  its  "Tacoma  perch"  and  hustle  for 
its  share  of  the  trade.  The  Great  Northern  Railway  is 
expected  to  be  opened  to  vSeattle  in  a  few  months,  and 
then  the  difference  will  be  still  more  marked. 

We  have  been  enjoying  the  luxury  of  trolling  for 
salmon  in  Puget  Sound,  both  at  Seattle  and  Tacoma, 
with  fairly  good  success,  as  all  our  part}'  save  one  ( and 
he  was  the  professional  "lone  fisherman"  of  the  party) 
caught  one  or  more  salmon.  While  the  sport  was  verj^ 
exciting,  I  confess  I  was  disappointed  at  the  tame  fight 
they  make  when  hooked.  There  is  a  good  deal  more 
fight  and  fun  in  a  four  pound  bass  than  you  can  get  out 
of  a  sixtc-en  i>ound  salmon.  But  they  are  beauties ;  and 
when  you  have  them  saR-ly  landed  and  l\ing  in  the 
bottom  of  the  boat,  they  are  certainly  a  "joy  forexx-r." 
Our  fifteen  year-old  sportsnuui  was  not  to  be  outdone 
by  the  older  hands,  for  lie  not  only  hooked  and  landed 
his  salmon,  but  he  also  landed  a  trout  with  the  trolling 
line  and  spoon,  a  feat  which  none  of  u.s  had  ever  heard 
of  before. 

Si 


f 


10' 


It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  catching  and  canning  of 
the  salmon  is  a  very  large  and  profitable  industry.  The 
number  of  people  dependent  upon  his  ' '  iridescent  high- 
ness," the  lordly  salmon,  for  a  living  and  the  number 
too,  in  all  civilized  portions  of  the  globe,  who  find  eco- 
nomical and  delicious  nourishment  in  his  red  and  juicy 
steaks,  would  be  beyond  the  ken  of  man  to  tell.  Yet  it 
is  safe  to  .say  that  no  one  product  of  our  Western  Hemis- 
phere serves  to  advertise  and  popularize  the  country  more 
than  the  canned  salmon.  Millions  of  tins  are  annually 
shipped  P:^ast  or  exported  to  Europe  and  .sold  at  such 
prices  that  "canned  salmon"  is  now  rightly  considered 
the  handiest,  the  cheapest,  and  the  most  nutritious 
cooked  food  of  the  century. 


U 


M: 


d^ 


NORTH  DAKOTA. 


A  sportsman's  pniadise,  in  truth,  is  this 
Where  nothing  mars  or  meddles  with  liis  bliss  ; 
Ninircid  himself  might  envy  sncli  a  spot, 
Nor  find  his  j-ame  unworthy  of  his  shot. 

—  IVhillon. 

r\OUBTLESS,  North  Dakota  is  tlie  "paradise  of 
I  I  the  sportsman  "  but  I  am  not  so  sure  it  contains 
*/       nothing  to  "  meddle  with  his  bliss."     Indeed  I 

have  strong  evidence  to  the  contrary  which  I  will  spread 

before  the  reader  a  little  further  on. 

We  wound  up  our  excursion  in  a  blaze  of  magnificent 
sport  at  Dawson,  in  this  state.  The  proximity  of  the 
place  to  eaormous  wheatfields  and  innumerable  sloughs, 
ponds  and  lakes  causes  all  kinds  of  aquatic  game  birds  lo 
congregate  here  and  in  the  greatest  abundance.  All  the 
duck  tribe,  including  the  red  head,  the  mallard,  the 
widgeon,  teal,  black,  and  bald  pate;  the  Canadian  gray 
goose,  the  beautiful  white  goose,  sandhill  cranes,  and  the 
plump,  solid-meated  prairie  chicken,  all  these  are  here 
and  many  others,  awaiting  the  pleasure  of  the  sportsmen. 
The  latter  come  from  all  parts  of  the  country— but  par- 
ticularly from  St.  Paul  and  Chicago— -with  their  lo-bores 
and  i2-bores,  their  retrieving  ^p•^niels  and  their  Irish 
setters. 


Mi 


ii 


The  town  hasn't  over  two  hundred  inhabitants,  but 
it  boasts  of  a  hirge  hotel,  which  is  now  reaping  its 
harvest  from  the  pockets  of  the  lots  of  men  who  know 
how  to  shoot  as  well  as  the  lots  that  don't. 

The  migratory  wild  fowl  are  now  making  their  way 
down  from  the  far  North  in  countless  nutltitudes,  feeding 
on  the  wheat  fields  and  ponds  in  the  early  morning  and 
late  evening,  and  resting  in  the  centre  of  some  lake  large 
enough  to  keep  them  from  out  the  reach  of  the  deadly 
breech-loader  during  the  day. 

The  flights  of  geese  are  something  wonderful,  and  it 
is  more  wonderful  still  that  so  very  few  of  them  are  shot. 
There  is  no  more  wary  or  suspicious  bird  than  the  Canada 
goose.  They  will  not  settle  anywhere  without  first  care- 
fully looking  the  ground  over.  From  the  height  at  which 
they  fly  and  in  the  rarefied  atmosphere  of  the  prairies  they 
can  see  for  miles,  and  they  carefully  avoid  any  moving 
object,  particularly  if  it  be  that  of  the  human  form. 

We  had  spent  several  days  there  before  we  were  able 
to  discover  the  fields  they  were  feeding  on.  When  we  did 
find  the  place  it  was  literally  sprinkled  with  their  droppings 
and  breast  feathers.  We  selected  a  suitable  spot,  dug  two 
luxurious  pits,  fixed  the  edges  up  with  wheat  stubble  as 
carefully  as  po.ssible,  set  our  decoys  and  jumped  in  to 
await  the  coming  of  the  "honkers."  We  had  been  in 
the  pits  only  a  few  minutes  when  we  saw  away  off  on  the 
prairie  what  appeared  to  be  a  man  with  a  dog.  The  man 
seemed  demented,  jumping  and  running  around,  and  \ymg 
down  on  his  back,  then  jumping  up  again  and  repeating 
his  operations  in  the  most  eccentric  manner.  We  held  a 
whispered  consultation  from  p;*^  to  pit  as  to  what  was  best 

84 


I  pi. 


.:'M 


to  be  done.  It  was  folly  to  think  that  the  geese  would 
come  down  from  the  clouds  for  the  purpose  of  getting  a 
closer  view  his  capers.  (Jh  no,  we  knew  they  were 
not  such  geese  as  that :  so  it  was  decided  that  I  should 
be  the  Ambassador  Plenipo  with  full  power  to  coax,  drive, 
persuade  or  kick  the  funny  intruder  off  the  prairie. 
When  I  reached  him  I  fcnind,  not  a  man,  but  a  stubby, 
little,  barefooted  German  boy,  whose  feet  were  sore  from 
walking  over  the  sharp-pointed  wheat  stubble.  Hence 
his  teafH.  I  thought,  for  he  was  crying.  But  I  was  mis- 
taktrii.  His  grief  was  not  of  the  sore-footed  sort.  He 
was  only  a  "little  Bo-Peep"  of  the  prairie  variety,  and  he 
had  lost  his  sheep  and  didn't  know  where  to  find  'em. 

With  more  ingenuity  than  \eracity,  and  a  ver\'  ragged 
attempt  to  handle  his  mother  tongue.  I  told  him  when 
and  where  I  had  seen  them  and  if  he  would  only  hurry 
away  in  the  direction  which  I  pointed  out  he  would  .soon 
over^^-^ke  their  tails. 

Watching  him  until  well  out  of  sight  and  pluming 
myself  on  my  diplomacy  I  returned  to  the  pit.  I  had 
been  there  but  a  short  time,  when  the  screaming  and 
"  honking  "  of  the  first  flight  was  heard,  and  peeping  over 
the  edges  of  th  pit  I  saw  a  great  moving  cloud  coming 
straight  for  us.  But.  horrible  to  relate,  there  was  some- 
thing else  coming,  and  something  that  promised  to 
"meddle  with  our  bliss  '  most  effectually.  An  old  l)lack 
horse  witli  a  girl  on  his  back  wabbled  towards  us  and 
getting  near  enough  the  girl  stopped  and  yelled  at  the  top 
of  her  voice:  "  Where  did  ye  say  ye  see  my  she-e-e-i)?  " 
"Oh,  for  Heavens  sake,"  I  said,  "get  out  of  this! 
Move  on!     Don't  you   see   you're    knocking   our   sport 

85 


m 


ii 
P 

ik 


into  smithereens  ? ' '  But  she  didn  't  or  couhln  't  or  wonldn'  t 
see,  until  one  of  our  men  threatened  to  put  a  charge  of 
shot  into  the  old  horse  unless  she  hurried  him  out  of  the 
way.  The  threat  seemed  to  improve  her  eyesight,  for  at 
once  she  commenced  whipping  up  old  "  Rosinante  "  and 
in  a  little  while  both  had  disajipeared  in  the  distance. 
And  so  had  the  geese.  The  flock  on  seeing  her  liad 
swerved  by  us  a  quarter  of  a  mile  away,  and  nothing  now 
could  be  done  but  wait  for  the  next  and  largest  flight, 
which  in  fifteen  minutes  we  heard  coming  toward  us, 
fully  a  couple  of  miles  off.  We  had  just  time  to  ask  our- 
selves whether  there  was  going  to  be  any  further  meddling 
with  our  bliss  when  the  answer  showed  up  for  itself. 
This  time  it  was  in  the  shape  of  a  woman,  evidently 
Bo-peep's  mother,  accompanied  by  the  rider  of  the  black 
horse.  The  girl  had  ridden  home,  told  her  mother  we 
had  threatened  to  shoot  her,  and  now  the  old  lady  was 
here,  with  the  martial  fires  of  her  fatherland  burning 
fiercely  within  her  and  her  blood  up  to  the  boiling  point. 
When  she  got  within  shouting  distance  she  opened  her 
batteries.  She  would  listen  to  neither  explanation  nor 
defence,  and  actually  charged  us  with  having  frightened 
her  sheep  away  by  having  a  retriever  with  us,  and  vowed 
vengeance.  We  entreated  her,  implored  her  to  leave  us, 
to  go  away,  anywhere,  so  the  geese  wouldn't  see  her; 
that  after  they  had  passed  she  might  come  back  again  and 
we  would  try  to  accommodate  her  with  all  the  ven- 
geance she  wanted.  But  no,  there  she  stood,  working 
her  jaws  and  hurling  her  brimstone  at  us,  and  waving 
her  arms  that  flew  around  her  head  like  the  sails  ot  a 
windmill. 

86 


1. 


•I 


The  geese  passed  over  and  away  out  of  range  and 
sight.  Then  lier  arms  resumed  their  equilibrium,  and 
with  a  few  more  liot  words  and  a  farewell  shake  of  her 
fist  she  turned  and  slowly  disappeared  over  a  knoll. 
And  we?  Well,  we  got  out  of  our  pits  and  with  spade 
and  shovel  silently  filled  them  up  again;  then,  hardly 
daring  to  trust  ourselves  to  speak,  we  got  into  the  wagon 
and  drove  to  the  train,  for  this  was  our  last  hunt  for  the 
season  of  1892. 


87 


^v 


,.^.. 


^j^.r. 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


<*  A  4l 


1.0 


I.I 


1.8 


1.25  III  1.4      1.6 

^ 

6"     

► 

Photographic 

Sdences 
Corporation 


33  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


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I 

I 

I 


BRANT  SHOOTING. 


Tlii»  Mport,  well  cnrriecl,  shall  lie  cliroiiicleil. 

— ifidsummft-Xivht' s  Difiim. 


r  i 


t 


% 


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•   V 

-S<,l 


30  let  me  chrotiicle  the  story  of  a  week's  sport — 
"well  carried,  '  I  think — on  Monomoy  Island, 
Cape  Cod,  Mass.  A  week  of  atmospheric  somer- 
saults; a  week  of  rain,  snow,  hail,  sleet,  thunder  with 
vivid  lightning,  and  extreme  cold.  And  yet  in  spite  of 
the  exposure — twice  a  day  wading  a  thousand  yards  to 
our  shooting  boxes,  (guided  by  stakes  a  hundred  yards 
apart,  while  we  couldn't  see  from  one  to  the  other  through 
the  fog  or  sleeting  snow)  sitting  in  the  l)ox,  at  times  over 
our  knees  in  water,  the  waves  dashing  over  it  and  slap- 
ping down  the  back  of  our  neck,  with  the  thermometer 
hugging  close  to  the  freezing  ])oiiit — I  say,  desi)ite  all 
this,  it  was  a  week  that  will  be  fondly  fastened  in  my 
memory ;  a  week  full  of  adventure  and  iiovelt\- ;  any 
quantity  of  o/one :  plenty  of  superbly  prej)areil  sea  food 
for  sustenance,  and  a  superbly  prepared  appetite  and 
digestion  to  handle  it.  It  was  also  a  week  of  total  blank 
so  far  as  any  news  of  the  outside  world  was  concerned. 
No  letters,  no  newspapers,  no  telegrams  to  side-track  our 
attention  or  upset  our  equanimity.     For  once,  business 

88 


and  the  shop  miRht  go  to  the-wd!.  "Hades.  •  Song,  story 
and  jest  hehl  high  carnival.  Dull  care  was  banished  and 
his  woeful  face  never  permitted  to  enter  the  i)ortals  of  the 
old  club  house  so  long  as  we  held  possession.  For  one 
week  at  least  he  was  a  stranger,  a  melancholy  tramp, 
jobless  and  with  no  abiding  place  on  the  sands  of 
Monomoy  Island  or  the  waters  thereof 

"Hello!   there's   branters,"  said    a  native  of  Cape 
Cod,  as  we  left  the  little  mixed   freight  and    passenger 
train  at  Chatham,  Mass.,  on  the  morning  of  April  4th. 
"There  be  nine  on   em,"  he  said,  counting  our  noses  by 
mental  arithmetic :  and  he  Mas  right.     There  were  nine 
of  us,  with  guns,  woolen  clothes,  rubber  clothes,  canvas 
clothes,   oil   clothes,  with    leather   boots,    rubber   boots, 
rubber  liats,  with  crates  of  onions,  boxes  of  loaded  shells, 
cases  of  canned  goods,  mysterious  looking  "stun  jugs" 
and  ".sich." 

Nine  of  us  from  Boston,  Worcester,  Quincy,  Dor- 
chester, Florida  and  Philadelphia,  all  drawn  together  by 
the  Freemasonry  of  sport,  and  the  shibboleth  was 
"Brant."  The  day  before  I  left  Philadelphia  I  told  a 
prominent  Market  Street  merchant  that  I  was  going 
shooting  for  a  short  time.  He  asked  what  I  was  goiug 
to  shoot  at  this  time  o'  year.     ' '  Brant,"  I  replied. 

"Well,"  he  .said,  "when  I  was  a  boy  1  used  to  shoot 
S(iuirrels  with  a  rifle,  and  got  so  that  I  could  shoot  them 
back  of  the  head  every  time."  (  How  far  back  he  didn't 
say.) 

"Well.  "  I  answered,  "'brant  are  much  harder  to 
shoot  than  scjuirrels,  for  they  run  faster  than  ral)bits 
and   are   much    bigger."     "Well.   I  declare,"    he   said, 

8«» 


i 


■i 


■I 

I 
111 


and   then  relapsed   into  silence,  perfectly  satisfied   that 
he  knew  all  ahont  it. 

For  the  information  of  this  Market  Street  merchant 
I  will  say  that  the  brant  is  smaller  than  a  goose,  and  at  this 
time  of  year  is  on  his  way  Xorthward,  merrily  helped  along 
by  hundreds  of  guns  belching  forth  No.  3  to  No.  i  shot 
froni  all  sorts  of  innocent  looking  shooting  boxes,  .sur- 
rounded with  decoys,  both   artificial  and  natural. 

The  brant  is  here  in  countless  numbers. 

It  is  a  bird  of  beautiful  plumage  and  graceful  form; 
plump  aiul  fat,  swift  of  wing  and  wary  and  suspicious  of 
anything  and  everything  that  bears  the  slightest  semblance 
of  danger.  There  is  also  a  mystery  surrounding  it  which 
has  bothered  the  scienti.sts  for  ages  and  is  still  bothering 
them — namely,  the  wherabouts  of  its  breeding  habitat. 
The  late  Professor  Spencer  Baird  worried  himself  more, 
perhaps,  than  any  other  savant  over  this  undiscovered 
territory.  No  living  man,  it  is  said,  has  ever  seen  the 
nest  or  egg  of  the  brant,  and  no  matter  how  far  explorers 
ha>e  forced  their  way  Northward,  the  brant  has  always 
been  .seen  winging  on  still  further  North.  Therefore  the 
guides  out  here  (some  of  whom  have  grown  gray  in  the 
pursuit  of  ''brantin'")  claim  that  there  surely  must  be 
an  open  Polar  Sea  where  the  weather  is  warm  enough  to 
hatch  out  their  eggs,  and  where  food  is  plenty  and  nutri- 
tious, for  they  come  down  in  the  fall  of  the  year  fat  and 
.sleek  as  a  pullet.  The  ycmng  birds  come  South  strong  of 
wing  and  as  cunning  as — well,  I  might  say  of  them,  as 
Huckingham  said  of  the  little  Duke  of  York.  "  So  cun- 
ning and  .so  young  is  wonderful !" 


i 
li/i 


Moiiomoy  Island  lies  oflF  the  nminlaiul  in  the  ocean 
a  few  miles  from  Chatham,  Mass.  lietween  the  island 
and  the  mainland  the  succulent  sea  grass  waves  gracefully 
to  the  gentle  swell  of  the  tide  or  the  fierce  ' '  Northeaster, ' ' 
which,  by  the  way,  h  s  been  blowing  a  gale  since  we 
arrived. 

Sea  grass  is  the  natural  food  of  the  "brant."  The 
stre'ch  of  sheltered  water  here  is  large  enough  to  leave 
the  birds  plenty  of  room  to  move  around  in  swinging 
columns  without  coming  within  range  of  the  sink  boxes, 
and  it  is  only  when  the  tides  and  winds  are  favorable  that 
the  birds  are  brought  within   the  line  of  danger.     The 

"  Mononioy  Hrant- 
ing  Club"  (the  only 
one,  I  believe,  on  the 
continent)  has  a 
couple  of  comfort- 
able houses  built  on 
a  bluff  or  sand  dune, 
with  artistically  con- 
structed sink  boxes 
placed  at  the  most 
favorable  points  and  a  large  stock  of  wooden  decoys.  Live 
brant  with  clii)ped  wings  help  to  lure  their  brethren  into 
danger,  and  with  asnuich  apparent  satisfaction  and  enjoy- 
ment as  the  setter  dog  takes  in  flu.shing  grouse  or  (juail. 
The  club  is  formed  mostly  of  ICastern  gentlemen,  all,  of 
course,  enthusiasts  in  sporting,  and  whose  number  is 
limited  to  twenty,  each  member  being  entitled  to  invite 
one  guest.  Four  members  oidy  are  permitted  to  be  here 
at  one  time,  and,  as  the  shooting  lasts  five  weeks,  each  set 

91 


HOMEWARD    BOUND;    ON   CHE8UNCOOK    LAKE. 


i 


m 


with  their  guests  have  one  weeks  fun.  At  dinner  in  the 
little  hotel  at  Chatham  we  met  the  party  who  had  pre- 
ceded us,  returning  to  the  'Huh"  with  seventy-four 
"brant,"  hron/ed  cheeks  and  ravenous  appetites. 

Four  guides  are  engaged  by  the  club.  They  are  men 
who  thoroughly  know  the  habits  of  the  birds,  understand 
the  tides  and  currents,  and  handling  of  boats,  and  know 
how  to  shoot  besides. 

One  of  them  has  l)een  continuously  at  the  business  of 
"giiidin'  "  for  thirty-one  years,  during  all  that  time  only 
missing  two  days — one  when  he  had  to  go  to  a  funeral 
and  the  other  when  he  had  to  go  to  court.  The  care  of 
family,  the  tender  offices  of  friends,  the  seductions  of 
courtship,  the  excitement  of  the  play  or  the  circus,  none 
of  these  has  any  allurement  for  these  weather-beaten, 
blue-eyed  and  kindly  men  when  once  the  branting  season 
opens.  During  the  rest  of  the  year  they  earn  a  comfort- 
able but  precarious  living  by  fishing  and  wrecking.  They 
watch  the  shifting  sands,  the  gloomy  fogs  and  the  blind- 
ing snow  storms  with  earnest  solicitude,  for  this  is  truly 
a  dangerous  place  for  the  unwary  mariner.  Close  by  the 
island  lies  the  wreck  of  the  Yacht  Alva,  which  all  the 
wealth  of  its  owner.  Mr.  \'anderbilt.  could  not  .save. 
Right  on  the  beach  lie  the  keel,  the  ribs  and  spars  of  the 
good  ship  Altamah.  while  her  cargo  of  lumber  is  strewn 
on  the  shore  for  a  long  distance,  the  drifting  sand  now 
covering  it  up  as  with  a  winding  sheet.  This  vessel 
struck  the  wreck  of  the  Alva,  opening  a  huge  rent  in 
her  bow,  and  the  lashing  surf  did  the  rest.  During  the 
winter  the  fine  steamer  Cottage  City,  from  Portland,  Me., 
to  New  York,  struck  in  about   fourteen   feet   of  water, 

92 


She  held  fast  until  thousaiuls  of  Imxes  of  merchan- 
dise were  thrown  overboard,  when,  with  the  aid  of  a  tug 
and  a  high  tide,  she  was  gotten  off.  and  without  rudder 
or  sternitost  was  towed  to  Xew  York. 

Our  friends,  the  guides,  lament  the  fact  that  most  of 
the  jettisoned  cargo  floated  out  to  sea,  but  with  the  re- 
mainder, which  was  weighty  enough  to  sijik.  they  have 
been  engaged  for  some  weeks  grappling  in    fifteen    feet 
of  water,  and  bringing  their  find  to  the  surface  a  .d  shore. 
Of  course,    some    "odd"    lots   have   been    brought    up. 
Among  them  was  a  case  of  2500  little  boxes  of  split  leaden, 
bullets  for  fish  line  sinkers  and  several  cases  of  white,  flinty 
rock,  consigned  to  a  Trenton  pottery,  which  the  wreckers 
are  much  out  of  heart  about,  because  of  their  weight  and 
also  because  no  one  down  here  can  tell  whether  they  are 
worth  the  freight  to  Trentt.n  or  not. 

These  wreckers,  branters  and  fishermen  live  a  happy 
life  and  are  as  full  of  content  as  an  egg  is  of  meal.  No 
fluctuations  in  stocks :  no  frills  of  fashion  :  no  telepho.ie 
reduced  rates  :  no  silver  craze— in  fact  nothing  under  the 
sun  or  above  it  can  knock  the  bottom  out  of  a  "  branters  " 
content,  give  him  but  the  favoring  tide  and  howling  gust 
that  bring  the  brant  -in  plenty"  to  his  decoys.  This 
It  is  that  warms  up  his  imagination,  cheers  his  heart 
and  fill  his  pocket  with  "the  coin  of  the  realm." 


41 


wmm 


THE  QUAINT  CAPE  CODDERS. 


i 
,1' 


ill 


:J 


Ah,  what  n  life  were  this  I 

-Henrv  11. 

ON  my  journey  clown  here,  via  the  Old  Colony  Rail- 
road, I  was  much  imjiressed  by  the  evidences  on 
every  hand  of  the  bitter  struggle  the  sturdy  Cape 
Cod  people  have  to  wage  at  all  times  to  provide  the 
rude  shelter  and  homely  fare  which  their  existence  in 
these  barren  stretches  of  sand  dunes,  pine  forests  and 
cranberry  bogs  demands.  We  can,  without  any  trouble, 
read  in  their  faces  the  story  of  scanty  crops,  grown  on 
poor  soil ;  of  continued  exposure  to  wind  and  weather  in 
the  pursuit  of  the  finny  tribe  that  swim  in  the  numerous 
bays  and  channels  as  well  as  in  the  dangerous  regions  of 
the  "Grand  Banks"  and  Block  Island,  or  in  the  laborious 
and  patience-trying  business  of  raising  cranberries. 

The  Old  Colony  Railroad,  whose  stock  is  held  largely 
by  the  natives  of  Cape  Cod,  and  who  look  upon  it  as  the 
great  railroad  of  the  world,  has  a  time-honored  custom  of 
giving  to  its  stockholders  on  the  Cape  a  free  ticket  to 
Boston  and  return,  in  order  that  they  may  attend  the 
Road's  annual  meeting  in  that  city.  A  man  owning  one 
share  has  this  privilege  in  common  with  his  more  wealthy 

94 


neighbor.  Therefore,  if  a  Cape  Codder  has  five  shares 
you  may  rest  assured  they  will  he  entered  singly  for  each 
iiienil,er  of  his  family  so  all  of  then,  may  make  the  annual 
tour  to  the  "  Huh.'  Of  course,  this  was  always  a  great 
day,  requiring  the  whole  equipment  of  the  Road  to  ha.idle 
the  crowd  with  safety  and  dispatch. 

Now  there  are  grave  stories  told  that,  as  the  control 
of  the  road  has  changed,  this  great  free  excursion  is  to  be 
done  away  with,  and  there  are  loud  murmurings  of  dis- 
content among  the  people  at  the  abolition  of  this  old-time 
custom . 

Spicy  tales  are  told  of  the  Cape  Codder  and  his 
church-mouse  poverty,  and  some  of  these  are  sharpened 
to  a  poetic  point : 

Tlicrc  was  a  youiiK  ladx-  of  Truro, 

Who  sighed  for  a  'liogaiiy  l)iircaii  ; 

Hut  her  ]va  said  "  (ircat  God  ! 

All  the  men  in  Cai>e  Cod 

Couldn't  pay  for  a  'lu)j4any  bureau  !" 
But,  we  are  here  to  shoot  "brant"  not  mahogany 
bureaus,  and  therefore  I  will  now  describe  to  you  a  sight 
I  saw  yesterday,  and  one  that  will  linger  in  my  memory 
as  an  in.stance  of  the  wonderful  instinct  and  weather- 
wisdom  of  migrating  sea  fowl 

For  days  strong  Nor  casters  have  blown  fiercely, 
accompanied  by  snow,  sleet,  rain,  thunder  and  lightning, 
and  through  these  the  brant  could  have  made  but  little 
headway  had  they  tried  to  proceed  on  their  journey 
Northwards.  But  they  didnt  try.  They  knew  better 
than  "Old  Probs"  what  the  weather  was  going  to  be. 
Yesterday  afternoon  there  was  a  lull  in  the  storm,  a  fog 

95 


■V 


111 

?! 


set  ill.  ii'ul  the  brant  coiiKfeK'^^^tl  '"  1""K  t'olunins,  flap- 
pitij;  their  witijfs  and  making  the  most  deafening  <»"tcTies. 
( )ur  ^nides  said  :  "The  birds  are  i)reparinf{  to  start.  The 
weather  will  settle  by  niorninj;;"  but  after  the  fog  came  a 
furiijus  ii,n\v,  with  vivid  Hashes  of  lightning,  loud  peals  of 
thund  .r  and  down-i)ouring  of  rain.  This  condition  of 
jifTairs  lasted  all  night,  and  for  once  our  c»)nfidence  in  the 
brants  wisdom  and  judgment  was  shaken.  lUit  lo  and 
behold,  this  morning  the  sun  arose  bright  and  warm,  with 
a  Southwest  wind,  and  up  and  away  the  brant  were  (lying 
Northward.  I'irst  a  series  of  sw»)oping  circles,  rising 
higlier  and  higher  in  the  air,  a  pause,  then  o IT  they  go  by 
the  thousands,  in  flocks  of  fn)m  three  to  five  hundred 
carefully  marshaled  and  efliciently  led  by  some  old  gander, 
who  will  allow  his  followers  no  rest  for  the  soles  of  their 
feet  until  the  Hay  of  Inindy  or  Prince  Ivlward's  Island  is 
reached . 

This  afternoon,  no  doubt,  other  flocks  ecpially  as 
large  will  reach  here  from  the  South,  stopping  to  rest 
and  lo  feed  ])efore  they  again  resume  their  journey  to 
their  mysterious  and  unkiKJwn  nesting  place.  As  the 
one  conversation,  tiie  one  aim  of  the  "nine  on  us"  is 
brant,  we  have  become  saturated  with  the  theme,  and  we 
think  brant,  dream  brant,  talk  brant  and  shoot  l)rant. 
One  of  the  party  has  been  worked  upon  .so  much  by  the 
excitement  that  at  the  card  table — for  there's  a  pack 
down  here — he  will  throw  down  his  hand  and  wildly 
exclaim:  "I  want  to  shoot  a  brant  I"  In  bed  he  will 
toss  wearily  from  side  to  side  as  the  others  sit  and  watch 
him,  and  he  will  moan,  "  I  want  to  shoot  a  brant."  After 
a  while  a  little  tiny  snore  is  heard,  then  a  faint  murmur, 

96 


"  I  want  to  shoot" — another  louder  snore  and  a  whisj>er 
— "a  brant,"  and  then  he  has  reached  the  land  of  dreams 
banking  away  at  the  birds  right  and  left,  jumping  out  of 
the  sink  box  to  retrieve  them  from  the  swift-flowing  tide, 
wearily  carrying  them  back  to  the  shanty,  past  ten  one 
hundred  yard  stakes — one  thousand  yards  of  deep  wa  Jing 
— and  then  awakening  to  the  crushing  truth  "'tis  but  a 
dream."  Hut  we  are  all  getting  our  share  of  the  shooting 
and  even  our  brant  enthusiast  will  soon  have  enough  to 
quiet  his  excited  mind  and  cool  his  heated  imagination. 


A    BIG    DEER    KIILEO    BV    JAWES    J.    MARTINDAIE,    SON   OF    THE    AUTHOR. 

The  cooking  at  the  club  house  on  Monomoy  Island 
deserves  a  warm  word  of  tribute.  There  are  two  chefs — 
Sam  Josephs  and  Frank  Rogers— who  revel  in  producing 
dishes  peculiar  to  the  Cape  and  Island  that  are  at  once 
enticing,  nourishing  and  appetizing.  Some  of  their 
productions  defy  my  faint  power  to  depict,  but  I  will  long 

97 


11 


cherish  the  recollections  of  their  huge  bowl  of  delicious 
stewed  scallops,  their  (luahog  stews,  quahog  pies,  <|uahog 
fritters,  clam  chowders,  steamed  clams,  boiled  clams, 
fresh  boiled  cod,  fish  balls  with  the  accompaniment  of 
thin  slices  of  raw  Bermuda  onions,  fresh  cucumbers,  the 
finest  of  butter,  Java  coffee,  and  water  that  made  my  heart 
thump  when  I  tasted  it  to  think  how  long,  oh,  how  long 
it  will  be  l)efore  we  can  hope  to  see  an  American  city 
supplied  with  such  sparkling  acjua  pura!  Now.  to  this 
magnificent  bill  of  fare,  please  add  ravenous  appetites  for 
one  and  all  of  us  from  our  open  air  exercise,  and  what 
wonder  then  that  when  we  turn  into  our  bunks  sweet 
sleep,  sleep  without  bromides,  sleep  without  hoj)  pillows, 
or  without  any  other  soporific  spur,  at  once  embraces  us, 
and  in  spite  of  the  pounding  of  llie  surf  at  our  very 
doors,  in  spite  of  the  storm  and  its  thunder  pounding  in 
the  sky  above  us,  we  awake  not  until  Alon/.o,  the  guide, 
says:  "  (lentlcnien,  gentlemen,  the  tide's  aflowin'  in," 
and  everybody  gets  up. 


;■»;( 


''i^:$^,a^s<di^ 


98 


THE  WRECKER. 

A  l.riivi-  ff lion- :    Hi-  keeps  his  ti<U-s  w«ll. 

—  TimoH  of  A  Ihfm . 

OX  the  barren  and  inhospitable  sand  dune  of   four 
miles  long  by  one-ciuarter  of  a  mile  broad,  which 
formerly    svas   laid   down    on    the   old   charts   as 
"Malabar"   Island,  but  now,  for  some  reaso.i.   I  know 
not  what,  is  called  Monomoy  Island,  a  number  of  profes- 
sional wreckers  ply  their  risky,  exciting  and  speculative 
calling.     I  have  always  associated,  in  njy  mind,  wreckers 
with  pirates,  thinking  that  the  terms  were  synonymous. 
On  the  contrary.  I  have  found  that  the  wrecker  is  a  man 
who  risks  his  very  existence  to   save  property,  both  of 
vessel  and  cargo,  as  well  as  human  life:  that  in  the  pur- 
suit of  his  calling  he  shows  rare   bravery,  great  ner\c, 
hardihood  of  no  connnon  character,  shrewd  wi.sdom  and 
cunning  in  disposing  of  his  "llotsani  and  jetsam"  and  a 
knowledge  of  law  relating  to  maritime  affairs  that  often 
outwits  the  keenest  Cape  Cod  barrister. 

For  a  week  I  have  been  with  four  of  these  rugged 
sea  dogs,  all  of  them  seasoned  wilii  more  than  half  a 
century  (one  of  them  70  years  of  age ».  and  yet  when  the 
winds  are  fierce,  the  fogs  dense,  the  snows  blinding,  they 
are   one   and    all   on    the    qui  vhr    for   the    signals   of 

<» 


Pi' 


u 


i 

m 


distress  from  some  unfortunate  coaster,  or  steamer,  or  full 
rigged  ship,  as  the  case  may  be.  To-day  I  have  walked 
for  miles  along  the  beach,  threading  my  way  over  and 
among  a  cargo  of  Southern  hard  pine  lumber  of  over  two 
hundred  thousand  feet,  which  is  piled  high  and  dry  on 
the  sand  from  the  wreck  of  the  Altamaha,  a  Scotch 
vessel,  built  forty  five  years  ago.  This  lumber  was  sold 
a  few  days  since  for  $2.75  and  $2.25  per  thousand  feet,  as 
it  lies,  and  men  are  now  at  work  removing  the  coverlet 
of  sand  from  it,  and  measuring  and  marking  it.  Then 
the  purchaser  will  have  his  hands  full  in  getting  it  to  the 
Boston  market  and  to  solve  the  (luestion,  not  how  nuich 
profit  he  will  reap,  but,  how  much  will  he  lose  on  the 
purchase. 

Close  by  the  island  lies  the  wreck  of  Mr.  Vanderl)ilt's 
famous  yacht,  Alva,  whose  walnut  fixtures  and  trimmings 
are  even  yet  coming  daily  to  shore.  A  contractor  is  now, 
and  has  been  for  some  time,  at  work  endeavoring  to  blow 
her  to  pieces  and  removing  the  obstruction,  the  Govern- 
ment having  awarded  him  the  contract  for  about  $9000, 
(only  half  the  amount  the  next  lowest  bidder  asked  for 
doing  the  same  work.)  The  contractor  brought  a  little 
steamer  down  from  Brooklyn,  (she  is  .so  slow,  even  under 
full  steam  as  I  saw  her  this  morning,  that  I  mistook  her 
for  a  stationary  light  ship),  and  when  the  tide  is  at  its 
lowest  ebb  he  is  able  to  get  about  half  an  hour's  work  on 
the  wreck  each  day,  as  it  then  lies  in  fourteen  feet  of 
water.  It  is  thought  he  will  not  make  a  fortune  out  of 
the  job. 

The  owners  of  the  valuable   steamer  Cottage  City, 
which  came  ashore  here,  the  vessel  and  cargo  valued  at 


$130,000,  sent  the  captain  of  the  life-saving  crew,  who 
had  given  vital  assistance  to  the  vessel  in  getting  her  off 
the  shoals  after  she  had  jettisoned  a  large  portion  of  her 
cargo,  the  munificent  sum  of  S5  for  each  man  of  his  crew. 
The  captain  promptly  returned  the  donation,  with  the 
assertion  that  he  himself  could  easily  afford  to  give  his 
crew  that  much  without  seriously  hurting  his  hank 
account.  The  owners  of  a  small  coaler  that  was  helped 
off  by  the  same  crew  promptly  sent  the  men  $25  each, 
which  was  a  distinction  with  a  difference. 

Since  I  arrived  here  a  vessel  of  500  tons  burden  has 
gone  to  the  bad  on  the  Handkerchief  Shoals,  which  are 
a  few  miles  from  the  Island.  A  fleet  of  small  craft  is 
daily  making  visits  to  the  wreck,  buying  and  laying  in  a 
generous  supply  of  coal  for  the  winters  fires  of  the  resi- 
dents of  Harwich,  Dennis  and  Chatham  at  varying  prices 
of  from  $1  per  ton  to  a  lump  price  for  what  the  dory, 
sloop,  cat  boat  or  yacht  can  hold. 

Some  time  since  a  vessel  showed  signals  of  distress 
off  the  island  in  a  moderate  storm.     The  daring  wreckers 
were  soon  aboard  of  her,  and  found  the  captain,  with  his 
wife  and  children,  anxious  to  be  taken  off.     The  vessel 
had  five  and  a  half  feet  of  water  in  the  hold.     The  captain 
was  half  owner.     She  was  well  insured,  and  he  did  not 
care  what  became  of  her  so  that  she  was  beached  and 
the  crew,  himself  and  fiunily  taken  off  in  .safety.     The 
wreckers,  together  with  the  life-saving  service,  manned 
the  three  pumps,  got  her  under  way  and  into  the  calm 
waters  of  the  bay,  where  she  was  sold  by  the  underwriters, 
the  wreckers'  share  of  the  "treasure  trove"  being  about 
$40  per  man. 


lot 


'fC< 


.(? 


■ill 


n 


Another  vessel  was  abandoned  here  some  years  ago 
which,  when  the  wreck  was  broken  up,  was  found  to 
have  two  huge  plugs  in  her  side  below  the  water  line, 
showing  conclusivelj'  that  the  captain,  in  order  to  reap 
the  insurance,  had  deliberately  filled  her  with  water. 
Then,  finding  she  was  sinking  too  fast,  he  had  driven  the 
plugs  home  so  as  to  enable  the  crew  to  get  ashore  without 
danger. 

One  of  the  narrators  of  these  "tales  of  shipwreck" 
waddles  along  with  one  leg  bent  out  from  him  like  a 
drawn  bow.  He  has  had  it  broken  three  times,  and  now, 
while  it  will  bear  his  "heft,"  as  he  calls  it,  he  can  carry 
but  little  addition  to  it  without  severe  physical  distress. 
The  first  time  it  was  broken  was  aboard  a  shipwrecked 
vessel  that  he  had  agreed  to  stay  by — all  alone — while  a 
tug  towed  her  into  a  haven  of  rest.  The  wind  was  blow- 
ing a  gale.  The  haw.ser  being  drawn  so  tight  as  to  have 
little  or  no  ' '  bight, ' '  he  had  become  fearful  that  the  strain 
causing  it  to  fray  by  rubbing  on  the  sides  of  the  "eye" 
through  which  it  passed,  might  part  it.  While  he  was  ex- 
amining it  the  the  iron  plating  of  the  "eye"  snapped  and 
crumbling  like  an  egg  shell  under  the  strain,  one  of  the 
pieces  struck  him  on  his  leg  below  the  knee,  breaking  it 
in  three  places.  He  was  just  able  to  signal  the  tug, 
which  was  soon  along  side.  A  consultation  between  the 
injured  man  and  the  captain  resulted  in  the  latter  taking 
him  into  Hyannis,  Mass.,  where  he  was  driven  to  the 
station  in  time  to  take  a  train  for  New  Bedford,  the 
nearest  place,  in  those  days,  to  obtain  efficient  surgical  aid. 

The  railroad  service  at  that  time  was  primitive,  the 
time  slow,  and  the  track  rough  as  a  corduroy  road  to  the 


til, 


crippled  wrecker.  The  journey  in  the  cars  alone  lasted 
just  eight  hours,  and  during  the  whole  of  this  excruciat- 
ing journey  he  had  to  hold  his  knee  tightly  with  his 
hands.  The  doctor  who  set  it  complimented  him  ou  his 
wonderful  exhibition  of  pluck  and  grit,  kept  him  in  bed 
eight  weeks  and  sent  him  home  with,  as  he  described  it, 
the  "best  bad  leg"  he  had  ever  s,een.  In  these  days  of 
anaesthetics  and  improved  railroad  facilities  such  a  trip 
would  be  of  rare  occurrence. 

Among  the   Cape's   quaint   customs  I  find    the  old 
Scottish  one  known  as  "bundling  "     But  this,  like  other 
of  her  quaint  customs,  is  slowly  yielding  to  the  march  of 
the  newspaper,  the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  and  the  rail- 
road.    I  scarcely  believed  that  this  custom  still  existed 
or,  indeed,  ever  had  a  foothold  on  this  continent,  but  I 
soon  found  indubitable  proof  of  it.     "Bundling,"  you 
must  know,  is  a  method  of  courtship  based  on  motives 
of  economy,  (the  saving  of  light  and  fire).     It  is  still 
practiced  in  Scotland  though  gradually  dying  out  there, 
as  increasing  prosperity  affords  broader  scope  for  comfort 
and  less  necessity  for  economy. 


>;S^ 


>o3 


A  WARY  BIRD. 


ii 


\'t 


I 


We'll  make  a  soleinn  waRer  on  your  cunnings. 

—Mam/et. 

•If  MAN,  to  be  successful  in  brant  shooting  must  be  a 
LY  sportsman  of  the  most  enthusiastic  type  and  a  fair 
*  \^^shot.  Moreover,  he  most  possess  a  good  constitu- 
tion, plenty  of  patience,  and  plenty  of  ability  to  defy  cold, 
wet  and  exposure.  He  must  expect  many  disappoint- 
ments and  a  great  deal  of  waiting,  for  the  birds  are  so 
wary  and  so  seldom  deceived  it  is  rarely  he  will  find 
them  within  the  range  of  his  heaviest  charges  of  powder 
and  shot.  When  the  chance  of  a  shot  is  obtained  and  he 
downs  his  bird,  the  excitement  is  over  quick  as  a  flash 
and  he  wonders  how  it  all  happened.  Let  me  describe 
how  it  is  done. 

During  the  early  spring  the  guides  have  sunk  boxes 
large  enough  to  hold  three  men.  The  Ijoxes  are  placed 
either  out  on  the  bay  in  shallow  water,  piling  up  around 
them  hundreds  of  wheelbarrowfuls  of  sand  at  low  tide 
(covering  the  same  and  neatly  fastening  it  down  with  a 
sail  cloth,  so  that  the  rushing  tides  cannot  carry  it  away) 
to  represent  a  sand  bar;  or  they  are  fixed  on  some  jutting 
point  of  land  in  the  bay,  always  using  plenty  of  sand, 
behind  which  the  gunners  are  to  sit  with  bowed  heads, 

104 


but  with  watchful  eyes  and  ears.  0«t  i„  frout  of  these 
boxes  wooden  decoys  are  fixed  on  a  framework  like  the 
letter  \\  five  on  each  frame,  all  strung  together,  so  that 
they  turn  with  the  tide  and  wind,  and  look  natural 
enough  to  deceive  the  oldest  gander  in  the  flock. 

Then  two  gutmers  with  the  guide  wend  their  way  to 
the  boxes  when  the  tide  is  flowing  in.  the  gunners  encased 
in  hip  rubber  boots,  two  or  three  pairs  of  stockings    a 
heavy  suit  (flannel  shirts,  sweaters,  overcoats),  and  laslly 
an  oilskin  suit,  if  the  weather  be  rough.     The  gunners 
get  in  the  boxes,  arrange  their  pipes  and  shells  and  bail 
the  water  out,  while  the  guide  takes  from  a  basket  a  pair 
of  brant  with  clipped  wings  which  he  deftly  harnesses 
together  like  a  span  of  horses.     The  yokes,  nmde  with 
leather  thongs,  are  put  on  their  feet  not  their  necks.     They 
are  allowed  to  swim  or  wade  out  quite  a  distance,  being 
secured  by  a  cord,  which  is  kept  on  a  reel  in  the  sink  box. 
The  particular  offices  these  birds  are  to  perform  are 
fwhen  the  brant  are  flying  or  swimming  anywhere  near) 
to  flap  their  wings  and  "honk"  their  wild  relatiyes  into 
danger  among  the  decoys :  and  it  is  amazing  how  intel- 
bgent  they  are  in  their  work ;  how  they  get  away  out  of 
range  when  the  wild  birds  are  being  coyered  by  the  deadly 
breech-loader,  and  how  they  chatter  to  themselves  with 
seeming  satisfoction  when  the  lottery  has  been  unmasked 
and  the  fallen  birds  retrieved.      When   all    is  ready  the 
guide  gets  into  the  box.  and  then  the  trials  of  endurance 
patience  and   expectancy  begin.      There   is   no   lack   of 
birds  in  sight-thousands   of  them-and    their   cries  at 
tmies   are    deafening,    but    they   keep    provokingly   far 
enough  off-  to  make  you  feel  as  if  your  head  mast  never 


i 


\  i 


m 


f 


again  be  raised.  You  soon  get  cramped,  numbed  with 
the  cold  wind  or,  maybe  rain,  or  snow  or  sleet  blowing 
and  pelting  in  your  face.     But  you  must  not  get  up. 


6H0T    BV    MOONLIGHT,    AND   A8    WE    FOUND   HIM   NEXT    DAY. 


p 

,.  I' 
I  l« 

u 


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'■'v( 


Once  I  sat  for  over  five  hours  in  a  box,  with  r  .n, 
snow  and  sleet  driving  in  my  teeth,  and  occasionally 
the  water  from  the  high  tide  washing  over  my  back  and 
down  my  neck,  patiently  waiting  for  my  reward.  It 
came  at  last.  Up  like  a  flash  and  within  range  came  five 
l)irds,  flying  down  the  wind  with  the  speed  of  a  carrier 
pigeon.  We  got  a  shot  apiece;  three  were  left  behind, 
while  the  other  two  were  soon  miles  away,  and  our  long 
wait  and  exposure  forgotten.  We  say:  "  How  did  those 
two  birds  get  away?  "  "I'll  bet  they  re  crippled! "  ' '  Watch 
them!"  "Thev're  going  down!"'  "No,  they're  not!" 
"Yes,  they  are!"  and  so  on,  but  the  birds  are  not  ours, 
that  is  a  sure  thing.     So  you  never  know  when  out  of  the 

ic,6 


'•■':(;i 


haze,  or  the  clear  sky.  like  a  meteor  from  behind  you   or 
straight  on,  a  bunch  of  birds  may  come,  deceived  bv  vour 
pa,r  of  live  "  honkers ' '  and  your  bunch  of  wooden  shams 
Or  again,  a  flock  may  be  feeding  and  unconsciously  drift- 
ing with  the  inflowing  tide  towards  your  box,  occasionally 
giving  a  quick,  suspicious  look,  swimming  back  a  little 
then  onward  again,  and,  of  course,  to  raise  the  tip  of  your 
hat  above  the  brim  of  the  sand  bank  or  to  get  up  to  stretch 
yourself  is   tantamount   to   a  speedy  departure   of   the 
"mysterious  bird   of  the   North."     Therefore   it  is  the 
man  who  can  stand  this  sort  of  work  the  best  who   is 
likely  to  make  the  biggest  bag.     But  a  great  deal  depends 
upon  the  wind  as  well,  for  if  the  currents  of  air  should 
be  blowing  off-shore  there  is  not  much  chance  of  success- 
ful shooting,  as  the  wind   constantly  drifts   them  away 
from  the  decoys,  while  they  are  feeding,  and  if  anv  should 
get  shot  and  drop  down  at  long  range,  they  are  apt  to  get 
out  of  reach  before  they  can  be  retrieved. 

We  were  seven  days  on  Monomoy  Island,  and  we 
had  a  fierce  xNoreaster  blowing  nearly  the  whole  time,  so 
that  what  success  we  had  (thirty-six  brant.)  was  solely 
attributable  to  lots  of  patience  and  perseverance  against 
hard  conditions. 

•  But  the  sport  compels  you  to  be  out  in  the  open  air, 
to  inhale  the  ozone  and  the  ocean  breezes,  those  twin  bene- 
factors that  bring  to  the  hunter  his  proverbial  appetite 
And,  Oh  that  appetite!  Vou  have  it  and  a  digestion  to 
wait  on  it  that  might  tackle  a  brick  pile  without  getting 
out  of  order.  There  is  another  thing  yon  have,  which  is 
not  to  be  sneezed  at-the  gratification  of  knowing  that 
with  your  trusty  gun,  your  hidden  retreats,  your  enticing 

107 


M 


I 


41 


m 


'ii: 


decoys  and  your  unwearied  patience  you  are  more  than  a 
match  for  this  the  grandest  and  most  wary  of  all  game 
birds. 

"  Nor  on  the  surges  of  the  boundless  air, 
Though  borne  triumphant,  are  they  safe  ;  the  gun, 
Olanc'd  just,  and  sudden,  from  the  gunner's  eye, 
O'ertakcs  their  sounding  pinions  ;  and  again, 
Immediate  brings  them  from  the  towering  wing. 
Dead  to  the  ground  ;  or  drives  them  wide  dispersed, 
Woundeii  and  wheeling  various,  down  the  wind." 

This  season  the  brant  arrived  in  great  numbers  at 
Monomm'  as  early  as  February,  but  finding  their  natural 
food — the  eel  grass — sealed  in  ice,  they  were  forced  to 
wing  their  way  backward,  after  many  attempts  to  get  at 
their  feeding  grounds ;  the  cold  weather  thus  compelling 
them  to  make  trips  ot  hundreds  of  miles  to  the  Southward 
before  they  could  obtain  their  sustenance.  But  they  are 
grand  "flj'ers"  and  a  few  hundred  miles  of  flight  is  only 
like  a  morning  walk  for  them,  and  they  don't  seem  to  worry 
the  least  bit  about  it ;  but  as  soon  as  the  ice  melted  and  the 
succulent  eel  grass  was  exposed  to  view,  then  they  arrived 
in  countless  numbers.  Some  say  that  between  the  fifth 
and  tenth  of  April  more  birds  were  at  the  Island  than  ever 
were  seen  before  at  one  time.  But  the  wrecks  and  wreck- 
age there,  drew  all  manner  of  sail  boats  to  the  scene  to  get 
coal  and  lumber,  and  thus  the  birds  were  continually  dis- 
turbed in  their  feeding.  Thej-  were  occasionally  fired  on 
at  long  range  from  these  sail  boats,  which  harassed  and 
frightened  them,  keeping  them  for  hours  on  the  move. 
This,  together  with  unfavorable  winds  and  storms,  reduced 
the  total  bag  for  the  season  to  one-hundred  and  ninety- 

io8 


seven  brant.     Such  was  the  result  of  the  work  of  seven 
weekly  parties,  aggregating  fifty-seven  sportsmen,  with  an 
average  of  twenty-eight  to  each  party,  and,  as  our  partv 
bagged  thirty-six,  we.  have  no  reason  to  complain .     Of  the 
o.,e-hundred  and  ninety-seven   killed,  one-hundred  and 
three  were  young  birds  and  ninety-four  old  birds.     This 
proportion  of  young  birds  ought  to  have  made  the  shooting 
better,  as  the  young  birds  (in  the  language  of  the  president 
of  the  club,  Mr.  W.  Hapgood)  "are  less  warv,  more  social 
and  more  easily  decoyed,  and  will  carrv  off  less  lead  th-ui 
the  tough  old  birds,  and  then  it  often  happens  that  the 
elders  are  led  by  unsuspicious  youth  into  places  of  danger 
where  it  would  be  impossil,le  to  coax  them  when  separated 
therefore   the   presence   <.f  so  n.any  jnvenile  visitors  is 
always  a  joy  to  the  heart  of  the  sportsman. ' ' 


>dR'<*^ 


109 


4 


1 


-i^ 


Hi 

m 

I 

'V- 

I 


^M' 


A  GLIMPSE  AT  THE  -WHITE." 

I'll  (Iroj)  1I1C  now  the  ciiiient  of  my  sport 
To  UiU  awhile  in  l-'nsliion's  Ki(l<lv  court. 

— Anon, 

HAVINCi  for  years  made  an  annual  pilgrimage  to  the 
White  Sulphur  Springs — the  "Saratoga  of  the 
South ' ' — it  has  gradually  dawned  upon  me  that 
few  portions  of  the  globe  furnish  so  much  material  for 
the  pen  of  the  novelist  and  the  pencil  of  the  artist.  The 
scenery  is  so  varied,  so  romantically  beautiful  in  its 
wealth  of  valleys  teeming  with  fruitful  crops,  and  luxur- 
iant foliage  that  holds  half  hid  in  its  bosom  the  modest 
cabin  of  some  former  slave,  while  here  and  there  the 
roof  of  the  more  pretentious  home  peeks  through  the 
green  as  if  to  greet  the  sun  and  sniff  the  bracing  air. 
All  this  and  in  a  frame  of  rugged  mountains  enchanting 
in  their  wildness.  and  the  picture  is  complete. 

So  much  for  the  artist. 

The  novelist  will  find  it  a  great  gathering  place  of 
the  wealth  and  beauty  of  the  South,  with  daily  and 
nightly  scenes  of  revelry,  amusement,  flirting,  and  love 
making.  He  may  witness  the  excitement  and  seduction 
of  the  "green  baize  table."  in  a  neighborhood  rife  with 
stories  of  the  war,  which  raged  in  and  about  the  "  White  " 
during  the  whole  time  the  direful  strife  was  in  progress. 
The  hotel  at  one  time  was  used  as  a  hospital  for  the 


i- 


Northern  troops:  at  another  as  a  stable  and  resting  place 
for  the  Confederates.     Heing  only  five  miles  from  the  Vir- 
ginia line,  this  West  \'irgi«ia  watering  place  came  to  be 
looked  upon  as  neutral  territory.     Here  Presidents  from 
the  earliest  days  of  the  ninetee.ith  century  have  been  wont 
to  .spend  their  holidays  and  hold  court  and  dispense  oflicial 
patronage  beneath  the  old  oaks  that  lift  their  statelv  heads 
above    the    famous    lawn.      Senators,     Kepresentatives, 
bankers  and  C.overnors  have  discussed  measures  of  Nat 
ional   and    State   policy  on  the  porches  of  the  hotel  or 
under  the  roofs  of  its  one-hundred  cottages. 

A  Southern  colonel  who  had  lost  everything  during 
the  war-except  his  love  for  whisky-came  to  sojourn  at 
the  "White."     Now  he  was  never  known  to  have  any 
money,  but  was  mostly  always  flitting  around  the  bar, 
waiting  for  the  refrain  "come  and  takesuthin',  Colonel  " 
which  invitation,  by  the  way,  he  was    never   known  to 
refu,se.     In   conse.pience   of  these   eccentricities   he  was 
looked  upon  with  suspicion  by  the  manager  of  the  house. 
who  promptly  sent  him  his  bill  at  the  end  of  the  week, 
with  the  re(,uest  to  pay  up.     The  Colonel  put  the  bill  in 
his  jiocket  and  promised   to  attend    to  it.     A  couple  of 
days  passed  and  the  manager  stirred  him  up  again,  this 
time  sending  the  mes.snge  that  he  nuist  either  pav  the  bill 
or  leave.     The    Colonel    asked  "Did  the  manager  send 
you  to  me  with  such  a  message?"  glaring  at  the  clerk 
with  a  fierce  ni-run-you-through  look.     The  clerk  tim- 
orously said  that  he  had.      "Well,"    said    the    Colonel 
"tell  the  manager  that  Til  leave  at  once,  for  that  is  onlv 
faar,  and  I  believe  in  bein'  faar."     And  he  left  the  hotel 
It  need  hardly  be  added  that  he  left  the  hotel  bill  too. 


U* 


)/ 


iV 


f 


The  Cht'sapeuke  and  ()lii»)  Railroad,  on  account,  I 
prcsunjc,  of  its  being  a  rather  out-of-the-way  route  to 
Chicago,  has  succeeded  in  getting  the  Trunk  Line 
Association  to  grant  it  the  privilege  of  selling  through 
tickets  to  Chicago,  with  the  right  to  stop  off  at  any  station 
oti  the  line.  This  gave  tne  a  practical  opportunity  of 
studying  the  great  value  of  such  a  concession.  As  a 
tiuniher  of  ICuropean  tourists  have  been  attracted  to  this 
line  by  reason  of  the  concessioti,  I  interviewed  several  of 
them  and  found  that  all  of  them  had  selected  the  route 
because  they  could  "break  the  journey  as  often  as  they 
pleased."  So  they  are  jogging  along  leisurely,  stopping 
at  such  points  as  they  think  will  interest  them,  and  there- 
by getting  a  much  better  idea  of  the  varied  interests  and 
scenery  of  the  country.  All  of  them  had  stopped  in 
I'hiladelphia,  some  for  a  few  hours,  some  for  a  coujjle 
of  days.  They  said  they  were  more  pleased  with  I'hila- 
delphia than  any  other  city  they  had  seen,  and  were 
astonished  at  its  size,  its  Public  Huildings,  its  Park  and 
its  stores.  Astonished,  because  they  had  "never  cared 
much  about  Philadelphia,  don't  j'ou  know,"  as  explained 
by  one  ICnglishman,  whose  complexion  .showed  the  blush 
of  forty  years  acquaintance  with  Hass'  ale. 

They  were  pleased  apparently  with  everything  but 
the  condition  of  the  streets;  the  cobble  paving  exciting 
their  ridicule,  and  our  roads  their  commiseration.  I  said 
that  they  mxist  not  expect  a  city  which  covered  more 
ground  than  London, — with  only  one  fourth  of  its  popula- 
tion,— which  was  constantly  growing  and  expanding, 
which  furnished  comfortable  homes  first  and  streets  and 
street  paving  after,  to  be  so  well  paved  as  a  city  over  two 


I  If,. 


l.ou»„„.  years  „l.l.  o„  „.|,o»e  streets  K„„,„„  ,.:„„«„„ 
have  walked,  a,ul  whose  roads  „ere  ,,lan„e<i  a,„i  l,„ilt  by 
Ronmn  enKh.eers  lK:fore  the  tin.e  of  the  Saviour.  The 
■."Kh»h,„a„  said:  ■•  l.less  ,„y  .yes.  I  „ever  thousht  o, 
mt :  ,,  p„,s  a  „ew  lish,  „„  thi„ss  here.  for.  e„,„e  to 
thn.lc  of  ,1,  th,s  is  a  new  country,  an<l  of  eourse  the  cities 
must  he  new,  too." 

Oh.  but  wout  these  luiropean  tourists  have  wo,ulerful 
s  or,es  to  tell  o„  their  return  !     Many  and  „,any  will  he 
the  nn.tations  of  Dickens'  " An.erican  Notes/ '  and  n.anv 
ami  „.any  will  he  the  foolish  criticisn.s  n.ade  upon  and 
al.out  us.     But  our  visitors  will  he  profoundlv  in.pressed 
vv.th  the  extent  of  the  country,  with  the  varietv  of  its 
clnnate  and  scenery,  with  the  restless,  irresistible  push  and 
nerve  of  the  people,  with  their  material  welfare  and  their 
prosperity,  and  they  will  return  with  broader  views  of 
h"">anity  and  the  world  than  they  ever  dreamt  of  '   I„ 
tins  respect  the  World  s  Fair  will  prove  a  blessin,.  and  a 
grand  advertisement  for  the  nation. 

Vea.  verily  as  I  have  said  the  novelist  might  find 
here  plenty  of  food  for  his  fancy,  full  of  richness  flavored 
with  facts  and  seasoned  with  all  the  spice  of  romance 

The  genial  Southern  gentlema.,  who  is  superinten- 
dent of  the  hotel,  and   known    far  and  wide   as  "The 
Major."  coukl  if  he  would,  unwind  n.any  a  varn  on  the 
late  "unpleasantness.  ••     He  might,  for  instance,  tell  of  the 
tune  when  he.  with  a  troop  of  Confederate  cavalrv.  was 
commanding  the  bridge  over  the  Green  Briar  River  six 
miles  below  here.     When  from  the  opposite  hills  was  seen 
an  immense  force  of  the  ' '  Boys  in  Blue"  defiling  down  the 
longroad.    When  the  Major  and  his  troop  were  discovered, 

"3 


ill*' 


rui 


how  the  "Yanks"  put  spurs  to  their  horses  and  how  the 
"Johnnies"  started  for  safer  quarters.  How  they  came 
flying  past  the  Grecian  cohtmns  of  the  great  hotel  with 
the  "Yanks"  close  after  them.  How  they  plunged 
through  "Dry  Creek,"  "up  hill  and  down  dale,"  right 
over  the  Allegheny  Mountains  to  Old  Sweet  Springs,  a 
ride  of  abou'  twenty  miles,  before  the  pursuit  and  flight 
was  over.  But  the  Major  and  his  conunand  were  safe  ; 
not  a  man  was  lost. 

The  Major's  tales  are  always  full  of  powder. 

Eleven  miles  from  here  is  Lewisburg,  W.  \'a.,  the 
county  town  of  Greenbriar  county.  To  reach  it  a  high 
mountain  has  to  be  overcome,  or  overgone,  on  the  higher 
points  of  which  is  a  stretch  of  utterly  worthless  land. 
The  soil,  what  little  there  is,  is  red,  stony  and  incapable 
of  producing  anything  better  than  an  occasional  thistle  or 
a  stunted,  sickly  little  pine  shrub.  An  old  time  stage 
coach  was  one  hot  day  toiling  slowly  and  painfully  up 
the  long  hill,  filled  with  passengers  who  were  making 
merry  over  the  "pore  land,"  one  man  venturing  the 
remark  "that  the  man  who  owned  that  land  must  be  a 

d d  fool."     Thereupon  a  long,  lanky,  West  Virginian 

rose  up  and  confronted  the  speaker  in  an  angry  and  defiant 
manner  and  asserted  "that  he  owned  that  land,  but  he 

wasn't  such  a  d d  fool  as  they  took  him  for,  as  he 

only  owned  half  on  it." 

Coming  down  from  a  horseback  ride  on  Kate  Moun- 
tain, one  of  West  Virginia's  giant  hills,  my  young  son 
said  to  me,  "Ain't  these  West  Virginia  mountaineers 
quaint  people?"  I  readily  answered  that  they  were.  I 
have  never  seen  their  quaintness  and  a  few  of  their  other 

tl4 


m^ 


peculiarities   equaled.       Old-fashioned    fellows,   homely, 
frugal,  careless  of  dress  and  the  proprieties  of  life  gener- 
a'ly,  eternal  chewers  of  tobacco,  iron-clad  swearers,  and 
chronically  hardup.     The  current  incidents  of  time  have 
no  claims  on  their   attention    unless   they  relate   to   the 
triumph  of  Democracy  or  the  success  of  the  "season  "  at 
the  "White."     The  latter  more  particularly,  for  on  it  is 
ba.sed  their  sole  hope  of  seeing  some  ready  cash  during 
the  year.     This  famous  resort  furnishes  employment  to 
al)Out  five  hundred  "help"  in  the  .summer  and  maybe 
fifty  or  more  the  rest  of  the  year,  and  thus  it  becomes  the 
distributing  source  of  a  goodly  number  of  thousands  of 
dollars   annually.      It   would    be  hard   to   compute   the 
amount  the  liverymen,   florists,   photographers,  doctors, 
musicians  and  the  gentlemen  who  so  seductively  preside 
over  the   fortunes   of   the  "green  table"   rake  in    from 
the  army  of  guests  who  patronize  this   "Saratoga  of  the 
South."     Speaking  of  liverymen  one  of  them,  an  abom- 
inable swearer,  promised  me  he  would  abandon  the  habit, 
which  I  told  liim   I   abhorred.     It  seems,   however,  he 
forgot  his  promise.     Here  is  his  letter  to  me  verbatim, 
which  will  tell  how. 


Pleas  find  inclosed  fifteen  dolers  to  pay  youre 
bill,      the   resoii  of  delay  was,  hard   times,  had 

weather,  sickness  and   no   money,     d d    if  I 

believe  there's  #500   in   circulation    in   the   hole 
United  States. 

Yours  Trulv 


I  reproached  him  for  having  broken  his  solenui  word 
about  swearing.  "Well,"  he  said,  "I  tried  not  to,  but 
I  couldn't  help  it ;  times  were  so  awful  pore. "     "  Why, " 


"5 


r^ 


4 


said  he,  "I  owed  a  man  ten  cents  who  lived  eighteen 
miles  off,  and  he  drove  in  one  day  and  sat  around 
for  over  an  hour  when  he  said  he  wished  I  would  pay 
him  that  ten  cents,  as  he  had  driven  all  the  way  in 
after  it,  which  would  make  the  round  trip  thirty-six  miles 
for  ten  cents. ' '  He  told  this  incident  to  prove  the  scarcity 
of  money  out  here. 


ON    THE    AMBAZUSKIS   RIVER. 


<  it 


I 

1'! 


i  M 


Last  year  a  lumberman  who  had  got  into  financial 
difficulties  allowed  three  notes  which  1  held  against  him 
to  go  to  protest.  I  was  advised  to  give  them  to  a  firm  of 
lawyers  in  a  neighboring  town  to  collect.  So  I  drove 
over  and  found  that  the  firm  consisted  of  two  brothers, 
one  of  whom  was  that  very  day  in  the  height  of  excite- 
ment running  as  a  candidate  for  a  public  office  of  a 
responsible  and  honorable  character.  After  a  chase  I 
finally  captured  the  other  brother  and  gave  him  the  notes 


Il6 


'A 


for  collection.  He  said  he  guessed  there  wasn't  much 
use,  but  he"d  try  his  best,  and  putting  the  notes  in  his 
pocket  drove  off.  Last  week  I  happened  to  meet  the 
maker  of  the  notes,  who  was  joyous  over  the  fact  that  he 
was  soon  going  to  be  able  to  pay  off  his  creditors,  and 
asked  after  the  three  notes.  I  told  him  to  whom  I  had 
given  them  for  collection,  but  he  said  he  had  never  heard 
from  them.  He  advised  me  to  ride  to  the  town  and  get 
them,  so  next  day  I  started  over  the  mountains  to  see  the 
legal  lights.  On  the  road  I  met  my  friend  the  lumberman 
coming  back,  and  he  reported  that  the  lawyers  had  no 
recollection  of  my  claim  whatever. 

On  my  arrival  I  found  the  pundits  in  a  little  upstairs 
room  seated  at  a  table  covered  with  envelopes,  opened 
letters,  bills  of  sale,  bonds,  writs  of  replevin,  leases, 
promissory  notes  and  "the  Lord  knows  what." 

The  elder  brother  was  a  genial,  kindly-looking  man, 

with  an  old  straw  hat,  a  shirt  much  the  worse  for  wear, 

and  no  coat,  vest,  collar  or  necktie.     He  assured  me  when 

I  told  him  who  I  was  that  he  had  promptly  presented  my 

claim  to  the  lumberman,  but  he  found  that  if  he  sued  he 

hadnt  any  chance,  and  so  had  waited.     I  asked  for  the 

return  of  the  notes.     Then  a  hunt  was  started  and  such  a 

hunt  as  only  the  immortal  Dickens  could,  with  justice, 

have  descrilied.     Brother  number  one  looked  through  the 

letters,  papers  and  portfolios  at   his   side   of  the   table. 

Brother  number  two  ditto  at  his  side.     The  day  was  hot, 

muggy  and   oppressive:    they  got  worried,  excited   and 

nervous.     Brother  number  two  said  he  guessed  he'd  go 

home  and  look  through  his  clothes,  which  he  did,  brother 

number  one  in  the  meantime  going  through  his  printed 


m 


m 


i 

k 


k 


W,.'.-i' 


a 


R^ 


blanks  in  his  search.  Brother  number  two  finally  returned 
without  the  notes  and  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  I  had 
never  given  him  any  notes.  This  was  awkward  on  num- 
ber one,  because  he  had  related  very  minutely  just  how 
he  had  presented  the  notes  to  the  debtor. 

So  it  was,  as  an  Irishman  said,  "like  bein'  in  the 
cinther  of  a  hobble,"  and  with  a  look  of  despair,  some- 
thing like  the  pictures  we  used  to  see  of  the  "Knight  of 
the  Rueful  Countenance,"  they  gave  up  the  hunt  and 
acknowledged  they  would  have  to  give  the  debtor  a  bond 
to  keep  him  harmless  *"roni  the  notes  if  they  ever  turned 
up,  and  their  only  apology  for  their  carelessness  was  that 
notes  in  West  Virginia  "ain't  much  account,  no  how, 
when  they'd  got  to  be  sued  for,"  and  so  they  didn't  "set 
much  store  bj-  them." 

At  the  lumbering  town  of  Ronceverte,  W.  Va.,  eleven 
miles  below  here,  on  the  Greenbriar  river,  a  great  boom 
and  a  gigantic  saw  mill  have  for  years  impeded  the  pas- 
sage of  black  ba.ss,  trout  and  other  fish  up  the  river,  which 
of  olden  times  was  always  a  noted  stream  for  the  bass. 
The  fish  used  to  be  of  immense  size,  and,  of  course,  as 
gamey  as  black  bass  can  be  in  cold  mountain  streams. 
During  the  early  spring  of  this  year  the  ice  and  winter 
floods  caused  a  break  in  the  big  dam  which  took  consider- 
able time  in  repairing,  and  lo  and  behold,  the  river  this 
summer  is  full  of  the  fighting  beauties  eager  to  take  fly, 
minnow  or  even  bait,  hungr}- — voraciously  hungry — and 
now  there  is  "fishing  as  is  fishing,"  and  the  Izaak  Wal- 
tons  are  wending  their  way  hither  from  distant  parts  to 
pursue  their  fa  cinating  sport. 

iiS 


IM   I 


It  is  intimated  that  the  President  of  the  United  States 
may  ,e  induced  to  come  for  a  few  days,  as  four  years  ago 
he  plied  his  rod  on  the  banks  of  the  headwaters  of  the 
turbulent  James  river,  about  thirty  miles  from  here,  at 
Clifton  Forge.  Verily  the  old  Anglo-Saxon  love  of  sport 
is  engrafted  in  us  all  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  else  why 
should  it  be  that  the  shibboleth  of  black  buss  should 
be  more  potent  in  drawing  people  from  a  distance  than 
the  charm  of  polite  and  cultured  society,  the  beneficial 
properties  of  the  famous  waters  of  the  White  Sulphur, 
or  even  the  cuisine  of  the  great  hotel  and  the  considerate 
attention  of  the  Chevalier  Bayard  of  hotel  men— "The 
Major."  But  so  it  is,  and  I  for  one  would  not  want  to 
change  it.  Let  American  business  men  devote  more  time 
to  outdoor  sport,  spend  more  of  it  in  the  open  air  and  the 
knowledge  will  soon  begin  to  dawn  upon  them  that  dol- 
lars are  not  the  only  good  things  in  this  life,  and  as  it  can 
be  lived  only  once,  it  is  better  during  that  "  once  "  to  hold 
on  to  a  share  of  good  health,  even  though  they  may  drop 
a  few  dollars  in  doing  it. 


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Ill',  ' 


I  •! 


I  ri' 


A  FIGHT  TO  THE  DEATH. 

Both  sides  fiercely  fought. 

—Henry  I'l. 

WE  are  a  few  "city  men  "  up  here  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  wilderness  of  Pike  county,  Pa.,  each  man 
expecting  to  catch  his  complement  of  thirty-five 
lusty  speckled  trout,  which  is  all  that  the  rules  of  the 
"Beaver  Run  Club,"  whose  guests  we  are,  will  allow  any 
member  to  kill  in  any  one  season  (and  the  fish  must  be 
over  eight  inches  in  length,  to  boot,  or  back  they  go  into 
the  stream). 

Japan  is  said  to  be  the  home  of  the  rhododendron, 
and  it  is  also  .said  that  the  whole  island  kingdom  is  one 
great  bed  of  those  gorgeously  dre.ssed  flowers.  Up  here 
in  Pike  county  is  the  home  of  the  mountain  laurel,  which 
grows  and  thrives  in  wanton  profusion  everywhere  about 
us.  It  seems  to  grow  equally  well  on  the  ridges,  in 
the  thick  cluster  of  the  woods  or  down  l)y  the  edges 
of  the  trout  pond  or  its  emptying  stream;  and,  behold, 
it  is  here  in  all  its  glory,  and  well  worth  a  trip  from 
the  heated  city  just  to  feast  the  eye  upon  its  ravishing 
mass  of  colors,  as  the  bushes  sway  to  the  breeze.  The 
UiMr-:!  is  well  backed  up  by  great  quantities  of  wild  moun- 
f.ai:;  -Oc  s,  now  in  full  bloom  ;  acres  upon  acres  of  black- 
I.c!.;y  tjusues,  clothed  with  their  white  blossoms,  and  also 


I 


the  appetizing  sight  of  the  luscious  wild  strawberries,  red 
ripe  and  bursting  with  their  delicate  acid  sweetness,  if  the 
term  may  Ije  used  ;  and  why  not  mention  the  elderberry 
and  the  wild  hop  vines,  both  in  the  height  of  their  rustic 
loveliness,  and  the  hazel  bushes  that  flourish  by  the  road- 
side. The  man  whose  sense  of  beauty  remains  unstirred 
by  such  miracles  of  Nature's  coloring  must  be  something 
of  clod  whose  life  is  scarce  worth  the  living. 

Maybe,  however,  if  the  flowers  and  waving  grasses, 
and  the  spear-pointed  fields  of  rye,  now  nearly  ready  for 
the  reaper,  do  not  arouse  him  to  a  knowledge  that  nature 
up  here  is  working  her  miracles  every  hour,  the  singing 
of  the  wondrous  variety  of  birds  might  entrance  him,  for 
here  the  feathered  songsters,  as  well  as  our  noblest  game 
birds,  thrive  and  multiply  amazingly.     As  we  arrived  at 
night  we  heard  only  the  solitary  whip-poor-will,  and  we 
heard  him  from  every  direction .     He  seemed  to  be  ubiqui- 
tous, but  when  "Phoebus    gan  to  rise"  next  morning 
(Sunday  i  then  did  the  bird  concert  truly  begin.     For  a 
while  it  was  hard  to  tell,  from  their  notes,  which  was  which, 
they  all  sang  so  lustily  and  joyously  and  well ;  however, 
bye  and  bye  I  recognized  the  war1)Ie  of  the  gay  oriole, 
then  the  sweet,  loving  .song  of  the  linnet,  then  the  robin, 
the  flicker,  the  catbird,  the  blue  jay,  the  song  sparrow,' 
and  from  across  the  trout  pond  the  familiar  note  of  "  Bob 
White"  which  rang  out  clear  and  sweet,  piercing  the  early 
morning  air  like  a  piccolo.     A  Wilson  snipe  started  up 
from  a  bit  of  wet  land,  and  swept  away,  saying,  "  Scape, 
scape,  scape," '  while  a  pair  of  sandsnipe  swelled  the  chorus 
with  their  piping  notes.     The  red-winged  blackbird,  the 
grackle  and  the  mottle-breasted  thrush  were  as  busv  and 


N 


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gleeful  lis  the  rest  of  the  feathered  soiij^sters,  ;iml  I  had 
nearly  forgotten  to  mention  the  leader  of  the  choir,  the 
bobolink.  I  heard  him  singing  his  rollicking,  laughing 
song  with  such  gusto  I  thought  he  would  split  his  mar- 
velous little  throat. 

But  while  the  birds  sang,  and  the  bees  worked,  and 
the  trout  leaped  swiftly  for  the  passing  fly:  while  nature 
seemed  glad  and  laughing  at  her  own  handiwork,  yet 
sorrow  was  in  the  land.  As  my  friends  and  I  sat  around 
the  grateful  log  fire  in  the  club  room,  our  talk  was  of  the 
tragic  death  of  young  Walter  Clark,  son  of  'vSquire  Clark 
(an  old  and  respected  magistrate  of  this  county),  and  of 
the  boy's  funeral,  which  had  just  been  held  during  the 
afternoon.  The  cause  of  his  death  was  a  fight  to  the 
finish  between  the  boy  and  a  big  and  vicious  rattlesnake. 
The  snake  won  and  the  boy  won,  for  each  killed  the 
other.  "  'Twas  a  duel  to  the  death. "  and  the  story  of  the 
fight  had  to  be  told  by  conjecture,  for  there  was  no  eye- 
witness. The  fight  was  in  the  seclusion  of  the  woods, 
and  one  of  the  combatants  was  dead  and  the  other  uncon- 
scious when  found.  Walter  Clark  was  a  boy  of  eleven 
summers,  sturdy  and  strong  of  his  age,  but  a  fever  had 
left  him,  as  a  reminder  of  its  virulence,  an  impaired  mind 
and  imperfect  speech.  He  had  one  marked  trait,  a  strong 
antipathy  to  snakes  and  hornets,  and  would  gladly  fight 
either  when  opportunity  offered.  On  Friday  last  his 
father,  the  'Squire,  was  working  in  the  field  and  Walter 
was  helping  him,  barelegged,  with  but  shirt  and  pants  on. 
The  boy  heard  the  ringing  of  a  cow-bell,  and  said  to  his 
father,  "Cow!  cow!"  His  father  said,  "Yes,  I  hear  the 
bell, ' '  and  went  on  with  his  work.     The  boy  started  down 


ill- 


the  road  in  the  direction  from  whence  tlie  sound  came, 
and  that  was  the  hist  seen  of  him  until  a  searcli  was  made 
over  three  hours  after.     He  was   found  away  from  the 
road,    swollen    and    unconscious,  his    tongue    out    and 
swelled  to  such  a  size  that  his  mouth  could  not  hv  shut. 
He  was  bitten  on  his  hands,  his  arms,  his  face  and  on  his 
legs,  and  some  twenty  feet  away  from   him  was  a  great 
rattlesnake   with    its   back   broken    in    three   places,    its 
fangs    inserted    in    its   own    body,    forming   a   loop.     A 
brother  of  Walter  s,  also  a  lad.  had  found  him  and  car- 
ried him  on  his  back  for  over  a  mile  and  a  quarter,  until 
his  strength  gave  out  and  he  fell  by  the  wayside.     His 
father  ran  out,  found  the  two  boys  and  at  once  started  to 
doctor  the  wounded  one.     Repeated  doses  of  whisky  and 
milk  brought  the  boy  back  to  consciousness  for  a  while, 
when,  with    fierce   look   and   gesture,  he   would   shout, 
"Dam'd  snake!  dam'd  snake!"  but   convulsions  set  in 
and   he  soon   died.     His  body  became  spotted  like  the 
snake's,  with  streaks  up  his  chest  and  sides,  and  spots 
upon  his  cheeks  and  brow. 

It  is  surmised  that  after  breaking  the  rattler's  l)ack 
vvuh  his  stick  he  rushed  at  it  and  caught  it  in  his  hands, 
trying  to  crush  its  life  out.  but  that  it  bit  him  o\er  and  over 
again  wherever  it  pleased,  and  finally  fastened  its  fangs 
into  its  own  body,  and  then  the  boy  fell  back  in  a  swoon. 
A  wagon  was  sent  post  haste  to  vStroudsburg  for  a  coffin, 
but  none  could  be  had  in  that  rustic  town,  and  it  was  neces- 
sary to  send  to  Easton  for  one.  And  so  the  savage,  plucky 
boy  has  now  been  laid  beneath  the  sod,  and  the  neighbors 
and  visitors  to  this  wild  region  revel  in  stories  of  snakes,  of 
snake  bites  and  .snake  fights,  and  the  men  hereabouts  look 


I 


carefully  where  they  tread,  and  jump  at  the  rustling  of 
every  chipmunk  that  they  hear,  and  the  women — God 
bless  them— they  hug  the  seclusion  and  safety  of  the 
boarding-house  or  hotel  porch  and  will  not  wander 
"afield"  for  love  or  money.  Who  can  blame  them. 
There  are  many  more  snakes  up  here  just  as  deadly  as  the 
one  that  killed  Walter  Clark,  and  since  the  date  of  our 
mother  Eve  women  have  always  dreaded  snakes  and  ever 
will  until  the  end  of  time  when  all  our  fears  will  be 
blotted  out,  masculine  as  well  as  feminine. 


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A  LOST  MAN  AND  A  WOUNDED  MOOSE. 


I  liiivf  lost  my  wny. 

—Antony  and  Clecpalta. 

IT  is  the  unexpected  that  always  happens  in  hunting. 
When  you  most  desire  and  look  for  your  game,  then 
is  the  time  you  don't  see  it,  and  when  and  where 
you  don't  look  for  it,  then  and  there  you're  apt  to  run 
against  it. 

My  guides  had  told  me  marvelous  tales  of  the 
hunting  opportunities  that  flourished  around  a  certain 
pond  or  small  lake,  a  couple  of  days  journey  from  our 
camping  ground.  To  find  out  whether  these  tales  were 
true  or  not,  I  thought  it  worth  while  to  go  there, 
especially  as  one  of  the  guides  had  spent  the  previous 
winter  in  a  lumber  camp  near  by,  and  was  familiar,  or 
ought  to  have  been,  with  the  country.  There  was  a  very 
large  bog,  five  miles  long  and  about  a  mile  broad,  which 
was  a  favorite  haunt  of  the  caribou,  moose  and  deer,  who 
found  in  it  enough  rich  food  for  sustenance  without 
resorting  to  any  other  locality. 

Verj'  pretty  and  promising  all  this,  but  "there's  no 
rose  without  a  thorn,"  and  this  rose  of  ours  had  one  in 
the  shape  of  a  goose — a  goose  of  a  sportsman  who  was 
camped  on  a  stream  some  two  miles  away  from  the  pond. 

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The  ''jfoose"  delighted  in  firitij;  a  rifle  that  burnt  one 
hundred  j^rains  of  powder  behind  a  fifty  calibre  bullet  and 
enjoyed  himself  hugely  in  loading  up  his  miniature  can- 
non and  banging  away  at  red  S(|uirrels,  partridges  atid 
rabbits.  He  would  leave  his  capip  in  the  morning,  walk 
to  the  pond  and  make  the  welkin  ring  for  miles  around 
with  the  noise  of  his  snap  shots  and  sight  shots. 

The  unwritten  law  of  Maine  in  regard  to  the  shooting 
rights  on  ponds  or  small  lakes  is  that  the  sportsman 
who  first  i^uts  a  canoe  upon  a  i)ond  or  small  lake  is 
safe  from  intrusion  on  the  part  of  any  other  sportsman. 
Acting  upon  this  hint  we  determined  to  paddle  up  a 
stream  as  far  as  we  could,  then  carry  our  canoe  to  the 
I)ond  and  take  posse-sion,  thus  shutting  out  our  noisy 
friend.  So  at  four  o'clock  one  morning,  our  strongest 
guide  started,  and  after  carrying  his  canoe  on  his  back 
for  a  distance  of  two  miles,  placed  it  on  the  pond  and 
returned  to  camp  for  breakfast.  Then  after  our  morning 
meal  I  started  with  another  guide  and  walked  to  the  pond 
loaded  only  with  a  tin  cup,  an  axe  and  a  rifle.  We 
reached  the  pond  at  about  half-past  seven,  got  into  the 
canoe,  but  at  the  very  first  dip  of  our  paddle  we  heard 
the  boom  of  the  50-100  rifle  fired  by  our  "goose"  who 
was  busy  banging  away  at  the  red  squirrels  on  the  other 
side  of  the  pond .  This  was  not  a  cheerful  state  of  affairs 
to  contemplate.  Big  game,  as  a  rule,  don't  like  cannon- 
ading nor  a  neighborhood  that  indulges  in  it.  A  few 
minutes  after  the  noise  of  the  shot  and  its  echoes  were 
sobered  into  silence,  we  saw  a  pair  of  deer  two  hundred 
yards  away.  My  guide  suggested  that  I  try  a  shot  at 
them,  saying  it  would  be  a  good  idea,  even  if  I  missed 

126 


the  (leer,  for  it  would  let  the  goose — the  other  fellow-  • 
know  that  there  was  n  canoe  on  the  pond,  that  the  pond 
was  mortgaged  and  he  had  hetter  skip.     The  deer,  how- 
ever, were  in  an  awkward  i)lace  to  he  shot  at  with  effect. 
However,  I  did  shoot  and  missed.     They  wheeled   like  a 
flash  and    hounded  into  the  woods.     The  sound  of  the 
shot  reached  the  goose  with  the  50-100  rifle  who  ste])ped 
out  into  the  open,  saw  us,  and  startfd  back  for  his  camp. 
We  now  paddled  to  the  other  side  of  the  pond  and  as 
the  sun  was  coming  out  warm  we  left  our  coats  and  vests 
in  the  canoe,  tcjok  with  us  a  tin  cup  and  four  bouillon 
capsules   and    left,    feeling   sure    that   the  cannonading 
already  indulged    in   would    hinder  us  seeing  any  more 
game   that   day.     We   left   the   canoe   exactly    at   eight 
o'clock  (I  know,  for  I  looked  at  my  watch  on  starting). 
Not  more  than  five  minutes  later  my  foot  stund)led  in  the 
bog.     Recovering  my  foothold  and  looking  up  I  saw  a 
sight  that  startled   me  almost  as  much  as  the  ghost  of 
Handefs   father  .startled    the  melancholy  Dane.     Not  a 
hundred  yards  away  a  great  bull-moose,  with  wide-spread- 
ing antlers  and  dilated  nostrils  stood  looking  straight  at 
me  from  between  two  trees.     The  place  where  he  was 
standing  was  one  where  a  man  would  least  expect  to  see 
him,  because,  by  all  rules  of  prudence  and  usually  safe 
moo.se  conduct,  the  noise  of  the  late  rifle  shots  should  by 
this  time  have  driven  him  miles  away  from  this  locality. 
It   appears   it  did    not.     And  what  did   I  do  under  the 
circumstances?     Well,   precisely    what   any   other    man 
would  have  done.    Up  went  my  rifle  and  without  sighting 
or  even  an  attempt  to  take  careful   aim,  I  blazed  away. 
And  the  moose?     Ah  !    Like  a  ghost  he  came  and  like  a 

127 


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w  > 


lA'  \ 


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ghost  he  disappeared .  The  guide — a  French  Canadian — 
said  :  ' '  Vat  you  shoot  at  ?"  "A  bull-moose, ' '  I  replied , 
"Didn't  you  see  him?"  "No,  I  no  see  him  !"  "Well," 
I  said,  "we'll  take  up  his  trail  and  see  if  he's  hit." 
"You  no  hit  him,"  he  answered  disdainfully. 

We  tramped  around  trying  to  find  his  tracks  without 
much  hope  of  seeing  the  tell-tale  drops  of  blood,  for  the 
bog  was  soft  and  the  feet  of  the  moose  left  no  mark  as  he 
ran,  and  the  red  moss  that  covered  the  bog  prevented  the 
blood — if  there  was  any — from  showing  on  it.  We  finally 
worked  out  of  the  bog  on  the  ground  leading  up  to  a' 
ridge,  and  making  careful  search  as  we  walked,  found  at 
last,  a  drop  of  fresh,  hot  blood  on  a  leaf;  then  a  little 
further  on  a  pool  of  1)lood  that  would  have  filled  a  bucket. 
This  blood  was  mixed  with  the  pink  tissue  of  the  lungs, 
showing  plainly  that  the  bullet  had  gone  through  that 
organ  of  his  anatomy.  I  now  proposed  to  spot  the  trees 
so  that  we  could  fitid  the  place  again,  then  go  buck  to 
camp  and  give  the  moose  a  chance  to  lie  down  and  bleed 
to  death.  My  French  Canadian,  with  a  whiff  of  his  old 
clay  pipe,  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  bull  was  mortally 
wounded,  that  we'd  find  him  in  a  few  minutes  and  advised 
that  we  follow  him  at  once.  We  did  so.  finding  no 
difficulty  whatever,  in  tracking  him,  as  his  trail  wr.s 
almo-«t  a  contiiuious  stream  of  blood,  excepting  when  his 
wound  would  apparently  become  clogged  with  a  piece  of 
the  pink  tissue,  and  then  for  a  few  yards  we  would  lose 
his  trail,  but  only  for  a  few  yards,  for  soon  the  gushing 
blood  would  spurt  its  passage  through,  forming  another 
pool.  And  thus  we  followed  on,  over  ridges  and  through 
swamps  and  bogs,  hoping  .soon  to  catch  a  sight  of  our 


12S 


M' 


expected  prize.  Sometimes  we  would  strike  a  place 
where  the  hull  had  stopped  to  listeu  ;  aud  agaiu  where  he 
had  goue  around  a  windfall,  showing  he  was  hard  hit  if 
not  mortally  wounded.  How  did  we  reach  the.se  con- 
clusions? Simply  enough.  The  hunter,  if  he  be  any- 
thing of  a  detective,  which  he  should  be,  on  seeing,  as 
we  saw,  a  plainly  drawn  half  circle  of  blood,  would  say, 
"  Here  he  stopped  and  turned  half  round  to  li.sten."     In 

the  second  in.stance,  if 
he  had  not  been  hard 
hit  he  would  have 
gone  over  the  windfall 
and  not  around  it. 
Once  we  saw  where 
he  had  leaned  agaiu.st 
a  tree,  either  to  rest 
or  listen,  or  both,  but 
nowhere  was  there  any 
evidence  that  he  had  Iain  down.  Twice  in  our  pursuit 
we  heard  him  crashing  through  the  brush  ahead  of  us, 
but  at  neither  time  were  we  fortunate  enough  to  catch  a 
glimpse  of  him. 

Our  !)raiii  befuddled  with  the  chase, 

We  took  r.o  note  of  time  or  space, 
and  before  we  were  aware  of  it  the  morning  hours  had 
gone  and  we  found  ourselves  on  the  borders  of  another 
lake,  miles  away  from  our  canoe  and  from  our  camp. 

It  was  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  when  we  built 
a  little  fire,  heated  some  water  in  our  tin  cup  and  boiled  a 
bouillon  capsule  for  each  of  us  which  we  drank.  The 
next  consideration  was  "what  shall  we  do  now  ?"     The 


ON    A   PILE    OF    SAWDUST. 


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V  ■ 


guide  said  we  were  about  four  and  a  half  miles  from  the 
canoe,  and  that  in  following  the  twists  and  turns  of  the 
wounded  bull  we  had  covered  a  distance  of  about  eighteen 
miles.  His  advice  was  that  we  start  at  once  for  our 
canoe,  but  first  to  ' '  spot ' '  the  trees  with  the  axe  to  enable 
us  to  take  up  the  bull's  trail  again  and  track  him  to  his 
death  bed.  So  at  half-past  three  we  started  back,  the 
guide  assuring  me  that  he  knew  the  waj'  perfectly  well. 
Maybe  he  did,  but  coming  events  cast  a  sort  of  a  shadow 
ovrr  niy  mind — maybe  he  didn't.  He  first  led  us 
through  an  alder  swamp,  that  only  needed  a  Bengal  tiger 
or  two  to  rival  an  Indian  jungle.  Lathered  with  perspira- 
tion we  finally  got  through  this  and  faced  a  high  ridge 
covered  with  numerous  windfalls  After  scaling  this  and 
getting  down  on  the  other  side  of  it  we  found  ourselves 
in  a  dense  cedar  swamp,  wandering  here  and  there,  and 
perspiring  at  every  pore  with  the  labor  of  climbing  over 
and  under  logs,  and  jumping  windfalls.  Then  came 
the  pleasant  conviction :     ' '  We  are  lost ! ' ' 

It  was  nearly  dark,  the  weather  had  turned  cold,  and 
no  time  was  to  be  lost  in  getting  some  wood  together  and 
starting  a  fire.  Here  we  were  in  what  might  righteously 
be  called  a  constipated  predicament;  without  coat  or  vest, 
or  blanket,  or  tent,  with  nothing  to  eat  and  nothing  to 
drink.  Could  we  have  found  water  our  remaining  two 
bouillon  capsules  would  have  made  us  a  good  supper ; 
but  there  was  no  water  and  consequently  no  supper. 
The  best  and  only  thing  to  do  now,  I  did.  I  pulled  off 
my  hip  rubber  boots,  intending  to  use  them  for  a  pillow, 
dried  my  few  clothes,  wet  from  perspiration,  and  kept 
close  to  the  fire  to  avoid  catching  cold  from  the  bare 
I  130 


,1 


ground  and  freezing  air.  My  purpose  was  not  to  sleep, 
but  keep  awake.  "Tired  Nature,"  however,  wouldn't 
be  denied  her  "sweet  restorer,"  and  soon  I  was  in  a 
slumber  that  lasted  till  eleven  o'clock,  when  I  awoke  to 
find  the  cold  intense.  Piling  more  wood  on  the  fire,  I 
threw  myself  again  on  Mother  Earth's  bosom  and  slept 
till  two,  when  the  frost  settling  on  my  face  like  sharp 
needles  awoke  me.  Again  I  replenished  the  fire  and 
again  slept  till  five,  when  I  awoke  in  time  to  catch 
Aurora  at  her  morning  task  of  decorating  the  oriental 
sky.  And,  I  may  safely  say,  I  never  watched  her  with 
greater  satisfaction,  for  never  before  was  daylight  so 
welcome  to  me. 

Our  search  now  was  for  water,  but  we  succeeded  in 
finding  none.  We  did  find,  however,  under  an  upturned 
cedar  root,  a  thin  sheet  of  ice.  This  we  broke  and  melted 
in  our  tin  cup  over  the  fire  and  then  cooked  our  capsules 
in  it.  Such  was  our  breakfast,  and  I  am  rather  sure 
the  Roman  glutton  IvUcullus  never  experienced  greater 
satisfaction  over  one  of  his  ten  thousand  dollar  dinners 
than  we  did  over  thai-  simple  meal  of  bouillon. 

After  our  breakfast  we  found  a  lumber  road  and 
followed  it  for  about  three  miles  to  a  great  marsh  or 
meadow.  Here  we  obtained  our  bearings,  discovering 
chat  we  were  about  five  miles  from  camp  which  we  reached 
at  eleven  o'clock  that  forenoon,  thankful  and  happy  to 
see  once  more  our  white  tent  and  the  guide  we  had  left 
behind  whose  anxious  face  told  plainly  of  his  alarm  at  our 
absence.  He  had  been  firing  shots  at  frequent  intervals 
during  the  night,  but  the  distance  between  us  prevented 
our  hearing  them.     We  had   been  tramping  around  an 

131 


ever-widening  circle,  until  night  compelled  us  to  stop. 
My  French  Canadian  guide,  who  was  one  of  the  ' '  I-know- 
it-all  "  men,  had  nothing  to  say  in  extenuation  but  this  : 
"I  don't  compre'  how  it  all  did  happen.  I  did  know  ze 
way  sure,  and  then  I  didn't.  I  feel  much  sorry,  but  ze 
nex  time  I  go  by  ze  compass  not  by  ze  knows  how." 


f'' 


U 


I  <( 


m 


133 


\ 


ADVENTURES  OF  A  DEER  HUNTER  IN 

MAINE. 

Escajjed  with  the  skin  of  my  teeth. 

—Jod  X/.V.  so. 

OF  all  the  things  in  this  world  which  are  not   pic- 
turesque the  breaking  of  camp  after  a  long  season 
spent  in  the  woods  of  Maine  conies  close  to  being  at 
the  top.     We  had  spent  many  long  and  exciting  days  in 
the  wilds  of  Maine,  and  camp  was  broken  at  six  in  the 
morning.     The  camp  had  been  on  a  high  ledge,  over- 
looking a  circular  sheet  of  water,  known  as  Moose  Pond, 
and  flanked  by  bogs  on  two  sides,  a  cove  at  one  side  and 
the   outlet   into   it  from  a  small  lake  above.     It  was  a 
dismal  day,  and  the  three  guides  looked  glum  when  we 
started  to  make  our  way  out  of  the  pond  through  the 
cove  into  the  lake  beyond.     The  wind  blew  directly  in 
our  faces,  and   the  guides  seemed  to  be  afraid  of  every- 
thing.    Kinst   they  were   afraid   they  could   not   get  the 
canoes  around  the  point,  then  afraid  they  would  have  to 
camp  on  the  shore  of  the  cove, —in  fact  there  was  nothing 
they  were  not  afraid  of.     Finally,  my  son  and  I  told  them 
that  if  they  would  only  put  us  on  the  other  side  df  the 
cove  we  would  lighten  the  canoes  by  walking  the  three 
miles  across  the  point  and  through  the  woods. 

133 


1 


ay 

■•(■J 


:\  ■ 

I.  )-'* 


I'll 


r: 


!!!■ 


Well,  we  started,  and,  although  it  rained  buckets  of 
water,  I  rather  enjoyed  the  experience.  We  found  many 
Iresh  tracks  of  big  game,  the  windfalls  were  few,  and  as 
the  path  was  deeplj'  carpeted  with  fresh  fallen  leaves  the 
walk  was  anything  but  tedious. 

As  I  emerged  Ihjm  the  forest  the  road  led  through  a 
piece  of  burnt  land.  I  heard  a  cow-bell  jingling,  and 
soon  spied  some  cattle  feeding  off  to  the  right  and  straight 
in  front  of  me  tw  ','ig  does.  But  they  had  scented  me, 
and  as  they  thr<  ....-••  ''eels  up  and  bounded  away  I 
tried  a  shot  at  the  uearc^-t  one,  but — ah,  there's  that 
'but"  again  ! — I  missed,  and  ihe  deer  were,  in  a  twink- 
ling, safely  into  the  i  <.,'nei 

We  reached  the  lake,  and  then  had  a  long  wait  for 
the  canoes.  On  their  arrival  we  found  one  of  them  had 
shipped  a  good  bit  of  water,  and  that  they  all  had  had  a 
narrow  call  from  capsizing.  As  the  wind  was  increasing 
every  minute,  and  it  was  necessary  for  us  to  cross  the 
lake  (here  about  a  mile  and  a  half  wide),  we  put  the 
baggage  into  one  canoe,  and  with  our  strongest  guide  to 
handle  the  stern  paddle  and  I  to  use  the  bow  paddle, 
while  my  son  squatted  down  in  the  centre  of  the  canoe, 
w-e  pushed  out  into  the  hissing,  boiling  water.  The  wind 
was  blowing  a  gale  straight  down  the  lake,  and  so  strong 
as  to  pick  the  water  up  from  the  top  of  the  white  caps 
and  blow  it  around  us  in  the  shape  of  fine  spray.  Our 
course  lay  diagonally  across  or  up  the  lake  in  the  teeth 
of  the  gale,  and  hardly  had  we  gotten  a  hundred  yards 
from  shore  before  my  son's  "souwester"  hat  nas 
knocked   off  by  the  guides  paddle.     But  that  was  no 

13-t 


place  nor  time  to  stop  for  a  hat.    The  canoe  mounted  and 
rode  the  waves  l)eautifully,  and  yet  at  times  it  seemed  as 
if  tlie  wind  would  hlow  us  over,  or  actually  out  of  the 
water,  particularly  when    we   reached  the   centre  of  the 
lake  and  the  canoe  was  turned  obliquely  down  towards 
the  other  shore.     Then  we  had  to  paddle  for  our  ver>' 
lives,  and  to  watch  the  waves  and  see  that  they  didn't 
break  over  us.     When  the  light  canoe  was  going  down 
the  sloping  sides  or  in  the  hollow  of  a  big  wave  we  had 
to  use  every  pound  of  our  reserve  strength  to  shove  her 
along  before  another  n;  juntain  of  water  caught  us.     It  was 
indeed  a  ticklish  trip,  for  had  we  capsized  we  would  have 
had   no  show  whatever  in  the  icy  water,  as  our  heavy 
hip  boots  would  have  prevented  any  chance  of  swimming 
or   of  a   rescue.     \Vc    fully   appreciated    the   situation. 
However,  we   got   over   without   mishap,  other   than   a 
wetting,  a  lost  hat.  and  a  profuse  perspiration  from  hard 
paddling.      \\'e  were   safe    and    for    this    we   devoutedlj- 
thanked  the  Ordainer  of  all  thin<rs 

We  stopped  for  dinner  at  a  little  frame  hotel,  the 
"  Chesuncook  House. "'  which  is  the  last  sign  or  send)lance 
of  a  hostelry  you  see  before  plunging  into  the  great 
wilderness  beyond.  Among  tho.se  who  were  making  the 
hotel  their  headfjuarters  were  three  "sports"  who  went 
out  in  the  morning  to  hunt  and  returned  at  night  to 
recuperate.  They  had  killed  a  nice  buck  the  day  before 
our  arrival  and  had  set  it  up  on  the  shore  of  the  lake  for 
mspection.  It  was  hanging  from  a  trident  formed  of 
three  poles,  and  while  the  rain  beat  upon  it  and  the  wind 


swayed  it  to  and  fro.  the  hunters  watched  it  with  ad 
eyes;  and  well  they  might,  for  it  was  a  beauty. 


mirnig 


133 


m 


I,'. 


U' 


■!f 


■il 


Now  two  of  the  aforesaid  sports  were  from  Wood- 
bury, N.  J.  and  the  other  from  Boston.  The  Boston  man 
and  one  of  the  Woodbury  men  were  built  on  the  corpu- 
lent model,  extremely  oily,  and  with  a  girth  that  might 
have  rivaled  KalstafF's.  But  they  were  not  sensitive  on 
that  point  as  some  oleaginous  men  I  know  are ;  men  to 
whom  the  slightest  reference  or  even  glance  in  a  stomach- 
ward  direction  would  be  at  once  a  rasns  belli. 

Our  conversation  at  dinner  turned  upon  the  treat- 
ment they  had  been  experiencing  from  their  guides. 
"Do  you  know,"  said  the  Boston  man,  ''  I  have  had  the 
most  unpleasant  experience  rubbed  into  me  l)y  these 
guides  and  I  don't  care  to  have  the  operation  repeated." 

"What  was  the  nature  of  the  operation?"  I  ventured 
to  ask. 

•'Well,  you  probably  have  noticed  that  I  have  a 
good  deal  of  butter  in  my  make-up,  and  I  don't  care  to 
have  it  all  melted  at  once,  which  seemed  to  be  what  these 
guides  were  after.  They  told  us  that  the  Ambezuskas 
meadow  was  a  glorious  place  to  hunt  in,  and  so  it  may  be 
for  a  lean  man ;  surelj'  no  fat  man  could  find  any  glory  in 
it  unless  his  fat  be  of  a  tougher  quality  than  mine. 
Imagine  three  hundred  pounds  of  flesh  floundering 
through  mud  and  water,  tripping  over  cedar  roots,  falling 
over  logs,  struggling  for  a  little  temporary  foothold  in 
order  to  pull  oneself  out  of  the  mud  and  regain  an  upright 
position  while  the  guide  stands  at  a  safe  distance  away, 
beckoning  and  shouting  "  come  on  !"  After  this  part  of 
the  progranmie  had  been  repeated  several  times,  always 
winding  up  with  "  come  on,"'  tired  Nature  gave  out  and 

136 


i 


refused  to  comply  with  the  guide's  mandate.  MountiuK 
a  stump  I  gathered  together  what  little  strength  I  had 

left  ami  put  it  all  into  a  shout,  "  Vou  he  d d  !  I'll  not 

'come  on'  any  more.  'Come  on'  yourself,  that's  what 
I'm  paying  you  for." 

His  story,  hy  the  way,  reminds  me  of  another  which 
is  short  enough  and  good  enough  to  fit  in  here.  Two 
would-he  deer  hunters,  one  thin  and  wiry,  the  other 
round  and  oily,  had  struck  a  trail,  and  the  thin  fellow 
lifting  his  eyes  saw  a  big  buck  bounding  directly  towards 
them.  "There  he  comes!  lie  down  I"  shouted  the  thin 
chap,  but  seeing  no  reduction  in  the  obtrusive  si/.e  of  his 
companion  again  he  shouted,  "Lie  down  !     Ue  down  !" 

This  time  an  answer  came  from  the  direction  of  the 
butter  pile. 

"I> n  it  all,  I  am  lying  down  !" 

"The  d 1  you  are  !     Then  stand  up  and  perhaps 

the  buck  won't  see  j-ou  !" 

We  left  Chesuncook  Lake  at  half-past  one  in  the 
afternoon,  fixed  our  loads  in  the  canoes  for  our  up-river 
trip  at  a  landing  stage,  near  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and 
still  in  the  driving,  pitiless  rain,  we  started  to  paddle  up 
the  river,  intending  to  reach  the  "Halfway  House"  (a 
resort  for  lumbermen,  freighters  and  .sportsmen,  about 
eleven  miles  up  the  river,)  before  dark.  On  the  trip  up 
the  "sport"  is  expected  to  leave  the  canoe  and  walk 
around  the  obstructions  in  the  stream  known  as  the  "  Pine 
Stream  Falls,"  "Rocky  Rips."  and  the  "Foxhole 
Rapids,  "  while  the  guide  with  the  lightened  canoe  poles 
it  up  against  the  swift  current  which  swirls  and  eddies 
around   the  huge  rocks  lying  in  all  sorts  of  ways  and 

•37 


\m 

,  T ' 


HI  ' 


.b; 


hi 


!.fi 

i 


iinglc's  ill  the  bed  of  the  stream.  We  walked  therefore 
through  a  path  in  the  woods  around  "  Pine  Stream 
l"*alls  "  and  tlie  "  Rocky  Kips,"  and  al)ove  them  was  a 
stretcli  of  "  dead  water,  "  which  ended  at  the  foot  of  "Fox 
Hole  Rapids."  Here  we  left  the  canoes  aj^ain,  and  took 
to  the  road,  which  runs  in  a  pretty  straight  direction, 
while  the  river  makes  a  great  bend  off  to  the  right,  and 
the  road  for  the  distance  of,  say  a  mile  and  a  half,  cuts  off 
(piite  a  detour  in  the  ri\er.  Just  as  we  entered  this  road 
I  told  my  .son  to  walk  on  ahead  very  carefully  until  we 
came  to  a  piece  of  burnt  land,  that  I  recollected  as  being 
([uite  a  feeding  ground  for  deer,  as  he  might  get  a  shot. 
As  he  was  emerging  from  the  woods  on  to  this  burnt  land 
I  saw  him  stop,  and  take  his  rifle  from  under  his  arm  (for 
it  was  still  i)ouring  rain)  aim,  and  fire.  I  saw  a  deer 
bound  away  and  the  youth  jumping  over  burnt  timber 
and  scrand)ling  through  stunted  brush.  Again  I  saw  him 
aim  and  fire,  and  I  saw  the  deer  drop.  Now  we  were  in 
a  pickle  ;  night  was  coming  on  fast  and  the  canoes  were 
away  off  to  the  right.  The  rain  was  s])lashing  down  in 
torrents.  There  was  no  time  to  wait,  so  we  at  once 
opened  the  deer  and  took  out  the  "  inwar  s,"  cut  a 
sapling  with  our  knives,  ran  it  through  the  "  hocks  "  of 
the  deer,  slung  it  on  our  shoulders  and  started  for  the 
road.  This  road  is  called  a  "  tote  road"  by  courte.sy, 
and  in  winter  it  is  much  used  for  hauling  supplies  on 
when  there  is  a  good  depth  of  snow. 

In  summer  and  fall  it  is  not  much  used,  and  there 
are  rocks  upon  it,  roots  upon  it,  and  holes  in  it,  that 
would  shame  the  "Slough  of  De.spond."  It  was  now 
du.sk,  and  soon — oh,  so  soon — it  became  pitch  dark,  and 


the  rain,  how  it  did  pour!  Wc  stutnhkd  and  slid  aU^ijr 
"  uher  stick  and  stt-iii,  "  and  also  over  roots  and  "  stein," 
and  water  and  nntd,  swayinj-  from  side  to  side  with  our 
unwiehly  load,  rifle  in  one  hand  and  the  other  steadying 
the  pole  on  our  shoulders,  every  now  and  then  traniping 
on  the  deer's  head,  which  hung  and  dragged  on  the 
ground.  So  for  the  mile  and  a  half  we  trudged  and 
trudged  until  the  canoes  were  reached. 

Here  we  found  the  guides  angry  and  alarmed  at  our 
prolonged  absence,  and,  as    they  were  soaking  wet,  we 
couldn't  blame  them.     We  got  into  the  canoes  again  and 
paddled  as  hard  as  we  could  until  a  welcome  light  shone 
ahead  at  the  "  Halfway  House."     This  house  is  away  up 
on  a  clay  bank,  set  far  enough  back  from  the  river  so  that 
the  spring  and  fall  floods  won't  wash  it  away.    Now  a  steep 
clayey  bank  on  a  night  when  the  water  is  pouring  down 
is  not  a  nice  one  for  a  lot  of  half-fro/en,  half-drowned 
men  to  clamber  up.     We  slid  and  slipped  here  and  there, 
now  down  and  now  up,  until  we  were  well  covered  with 
clay,  but  we  were  cheerful  withal,  and  that's  a  great  deal 
towards  contentment.     We  at  last  reached  the  house,  had 
our  baggage  brought  in,  and,  to  our  disgust,  found  every- 
thing was  wet,  overcoats,  blankets,  underclothes,  nega- 
tives, etc.,  etc.     A  big  fire  was  built  in  a  big  stove.     We 
ate  supper,  hung  our  wet  clothes  around  the  fire,  emptied 
all  of  our  luggage  sacks  and  hung  the  contents  of  them 
upon  the  chairs  and  benches  as  well  as  upon  the  wall, 
and    then    to    bed,  where  we  slept  the  sweet  sleep  that 
comes  to  all  men  who  labor  out  in  the  open  air,  and  who 
whimper  not  at  storm  or  cold  but  try  to  make  the  best  ot 
everything  that  fortune  is  pleased  to  shower  upon  them. 

139 


\l 


At  luilf-past  tlirtv  the  next  morning'  wc  luinl)k'(l  out 
of  bed,  !ilr  a  hasty  breakfast  of  Itn-a'i  and  butter  anil 
l)acon  and  eoflee,  repacked  all  our  thin>{s  ( which  now 
were  dry )  in  their  ])roper  sacks,  carried  thetn  down  and 
placed  them  in  the  canoes  and  before  the  H(>ddess  of  morn 
had  time  to  get  her  eyes  open  we  pushed  off  for  our  last 
canoeing;  trip  of  the  season. 


i  ■ 


I.?'! 


THE    HOUSE    T>:t    BEAVER    LIVES    IN. 


The  pouring  rain  of  the  night  before  had  ceased  and 
now  the  weather  had  turned  so  cold  that  the  water  froze 
upon  our  paddles,  and  the  river  was  so  nearly  frozen  that 
there  was  little  or  no  spring  in  the  canoes.  'Twas  a  dead 
push  all  the  way  up  to  the  "Northeast  Carry."  Our 
leather  boots  we  had  not  been  able  to  draw  on,  by  reason 
of  their  soaking  of  the  night  before,  and  rubber  boots  had 
to  be  substituted,  which,  in  that  biting  cold,  made  it 
uncomfortable  paddling.     After  a  run  of  four  miles  we 

140 


were  glad  to  push  the  raiioi-s  ashore,  build  a  lire  aud 
warm  up.  At  about  nine  o'clock  we  landed  at  the 
"Carry,"  hired  a  wagon  to  "tote"  our  stud"  over  to 
Moosehead  Lake  and  then  we  walked  the  two  miles  of 
good  road,  which  constitutes  this  famous  "  Carry." 

At  the  little  hotel  at  the  lake  end  of  the  "Carry  " 
we  had  to  wait  several   hours  for  a  steamboat  to  take  us 
to  (ireenville,  forty  miles  away,  where  the  train  is  taken 
for  liangor.     Here  I  noticed  a  youth  who  looked  feeble 
and  sick,  as  if  nigh  unto  death.     He  was  a  farmer's  boy, 
whose  home  was  near  Hartford,  Comi.     On  the  farm  he 
had  read  and  reread  stories  of  hunters  ;  of  their  happy 
lives  in  the  woods,  and  their  ignorance  of  restraint.     The 
reading  of  Cooper's  novels  had  so  fired  his  imagination 
he  believed  that  all  he  had  to  do  to  be  and  live  the  life 
of  a  hunter  was  to  take  into  the  woods  with  him  a  rifle 
and  a  rubber  blanket.     This  was  not  a  theory  with  him 
to  dream  over,  but  one  to  act  upon,  and  in  reality  that 
was  exactly   what   he   did.      He   came   alone    from  his 
farm,  went  alone  into  the  woods  and  very  soon  stalked  a 
deer  which  he  succeeded  in  killing.     Then  his  youthful 
breast  beat  liigh  with  rapture  as  he  saw  the  noble  quarry 
lying  at  his  feet.     But  hunger  must  be  appeased,  and  he 
was  hungry,  no  doubt  about  that.     He  dressed  the  deer, 
cut  a  steak,  still  reeking  with  animal  heat,  built  a  fire, 
toa.sted  the  venison  on  a  stick  and  greedily  ate  it.     Then 
spreading  his  rubber  blanket  upon  the  ground  and  without 
either  blanket  to  cover  him  or  sleeping  bag  to  crawl  into, 
he  laid  him  down  in  the  frosty  air  and  slept  the  sleep  of 
youth   and   tired-out   nature.     Next  morning  he  awoke 
with  .shivering  body  and  chattering  teeth  and  a  burning 


141 


1? 


"is 


I 


(('V 


pain  in  the  intestines.  Hanging  his  deer  up  in  a  tree  as 
well  as  he  could,  he  built  a  fresh  fire  and  tried  to  warm 
his  body  and  dispel  the  chill  which  at  last  gave  way  to  a 
fever  and  a  splitting  headache.  The  morning  passed, 
noon  came,  and  night,  and  there  he  \i\y.  On  the  morning 
of  the  .second  day,  prone  upon  the  ground,  with  the  red 
squirrels  busy  about  him  gathering  their  winter  stores, 
the  poor  boy  lay.  Here,  sick,  far  from  home,  from 
kindred,  from  a  mother's  tender  care,  from  a  doctor's 
aid,  he  was  found  by  a  party  of  lumbermen,  who  carried 
him  to  their  camp  and  nursed  and  fed  him  as  well  as  they 
could  for  six  days.  Then  as  the  winter  was  fast  closing 
in  they  sent  a  man  out  of  the  woods  with  him  to  the 
"Carry,"  and  here  I  saw  him.  His  attendant  asked  me 
if  I  would  look  after  him  as  far  as  I  went.  I  told  him 
nothing  could  give  me  more  pleasure  than  to  do  so. 

When  the  steamboat  arrived  I  took  him  aboard,  got 
a  sofa  for  him  to  lie  upon,  and  then  looked  mj'  medicine 
chest  over.  Picking  out  some  tablets,  which  had  a  very 
little  morphia  in  them,  I  gave  him  one  of  tliese  every 
three  hours,  and  made  him  drink  hot  milk  with  some 
cayenne  pepper  in  it. 

We  reached  Greenville  very  late  at  night,  leaving  at 
six  the  next  morning  and  arrived  at  Bangor  about  noon, 
which  place  we  left  sometime  in  the  early  afternoon.  At 
these  places  and  wherever  and  whenever  I  could  get  the 
hot  milk  I  made  the  poor  boy  drink  it.  At  Portland,  I 
had  a  doctor  examine  him  who  .said  that  the  boy  was 
certainly  in  the  early  stages  of  typhoid  fever  and  that  he 
also  had  intestinal  catarrh,  caused  by  the  eating  of  the 
venison  before  it  had  parted  with  its  animal  heat.     The 

142 


doctor  also  said   that  the  tablets  I  had  given  him  were 
"right  "  and  that  the  hot  milk  was  "right. ' '   We  reached 
Boston  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  thinking  that 
the  train  I  was  to  take  was  the  same  which  was  to  carry 
the   boy  to   his   home,    I   took    him  to   the   Providence 
depot,  but  found  I  was  mistaken,  and  that  he  had  to  go 
by  the  Boston  and  Albany  Railway.     Mv  time  was  short 
and  his  too      Checking  n,y  own  baggage  I  engaged  my 
berth  to  Philadelphia,  and  leaving  my  son  with  the  re- 
mainder of  the  stuff,  started  for  the  other  depot.     It  was 
raining  heavily,  and  at  that  time  of  night  I  could  find 
neither  carriage   nor  street  car,  and  so  was  compelled 
partly  to  support  and  carry,  and  partly  to  drag  the  sick 
boy  on  the  way.     We  reached  the  train  with  five  minutes 
to   .spare.     After  buying  his  ticket  I   helped  him  into  a 
car,  laid  him  down  and  then  hunted  up  the  conductor-a 
portly,  pompous,  beggar-on- horse-back  sort  of  a  fellow- 
and  asked  him  if  he  wouldn't  kindly  look  after  the  boy  to 
the  end  of  his  division  and  then  ask  the  following  con- 
ductor also  to  see  to  his  comfort.     His  reply  was  perhaps 
what   I   might   have   expected.     "  No.  sir  !     I    have  no 
time   to   look  u.cer  sick  people.     I've  got  mv  train  to 
attend  to.  and  if  the  boy  gives  me  any  trouble  I'll  put  him 
off  at  Worcester  and  send  him  to  the  hospital."     A  man 
was  standing  near  him  (probably  a  railway  official)  who 
had  listened  to  my  story  and  request  and  to  tl<  •  con- 
ductor's reply.     He  turned  quickly  to  the  man         ,rass 
buttons  and  swinging  lantern,  and  spoke  witli  a  frown. 


The  words  were  few  and  their 


but.  whatever  it  n: 
The  conductor  came 


puri)()rt  I  did  not  catch, 


have  been,  tlie  change 


was  magical. 


toward  me  and  in  the  most  oolite 


143 


E 


1'. 


and  cringing  manner  promised  to  look  after  the  boy. 
Then  the  semaphore  over  the  gate  changed  from  red  to 
white,  the  bell  rang,  a  shout  of  "All  aboard"  and  with 
measured  puflf  the  train  was  on  its  way. 

My  own  train  was  to  leave  at  midnight  and  I  hurried 
back  to  it  through  the  rain  which  pelted  in  torrents  and 
wet  me  through.  However,  it  took  but  little  time  to  get 
undressed  and  into  my  berth.  A  few  moments  afterwards 
I  felt  the  train  moving  out  of  the  station,  and  then  all 
knowledge  and  recollection  took  a  back  seat.  I  knew 
nothing  until  I  awoke  next  morning  in  Philadelphia, 
fully  aware  then  that  the  hunting  season  of  1896  was  over, 
that  I  was  back  among  my  friends  and  loved  ones,  sound 
in  mind  and  limb,  revived  in  brain  and  ready  for  any 
amount  of  work.     Verily, 

"  Hunting  is  an  exercise 
To  make  man  stiirch-,  active,  wise  ; 
To  fill  his  spirits  with  delight, 
To  help  his  hearing,  mend  his  sight, 
To  teach  him  arts  tliat  never  slip 
His  memory  ;  canoemanship. 
And  search  and  sharpness  and  defense, 
And  all  ill  habits  chaseth  hence." 


v§ 


It 


1! 


144 


^^^^^ifcis 

Nv    " 

■  m 

BP^ 

JB 

Mj 

K' 

^'''^M^^^^l 

^^^^Hf   '^B^^^i^ 

■H|^^*^B-'j 

A  ""  ^JUBf^\  .  -. 

■;^^ 

^^K-^iv,/' .  ^ 

I^Km.  ' 

I^^^^Bpi^f^  ^ 

^^        a^^H^v'  ■- 

v*:^ 

^^^KL;-^* 

THE    YOUNG    HUNTER. 

JAMES    J.    MAHTINDALE    AT    13    VtAHb,    WHEN    HE    KIllEO    HIS    FIRST    GAME. 


«45 


A  PARTING  SHOT. 


>\\ 


>.*'• 


I  It 


^il 


'I 


Have  you  with  liced  perused  What  I  have  written  to  you  ? 

—  Coriolanus. 

I^LITTARCH  says:     "  Recreation  is  the  sweet  sauce 
X^      of  labor,"  a  fact  of  which  the  American  business 
^       man  who  usuall}'  swallows  his  labor  with  no  sauce 
at  all,  should  make  a  note. 

"  What  so  strong 
But  wanting  rest,  will  also  want  the  might? 
The  Hun  that  measures  heaven  all  day  long. 
At  night  doth  bait  his  steeds  the  ocean  waves  among.'' 

The  labors  of  old  Sol,  to  be  sure,  are  a  little  out  of 
the  line  of  the  business  man,  but  not  so  much  out  of  it 
that  he  can  afford  to  disregard  the  example  or  declare 
that  rest  and  recreation  are  but  snares. 

Delusions  mere,  inventions  of  the  devil, 

to  bani])oo7.1e  the  thrifty  and  keep  up  the  world's  stock  of 
drones.  If  the  devil  did  invent  them  I  have  a  much 
higher  opinion  of  him  than  usually  obtains,  and  the 
proverb  is  right —  the  old  fellow  is  "not  so  black  as  he's 
painted." 

What  I  have  recited  in  the  foregoing  pages  comprises 
but  a  small  portion  of  the  very  many  pleasant  and  excit- 
ing incidents  and  experiences  enjoyed  in  my  tussle  with 

146 


the  w.lds  of  Nature.  Though  the  time  was  comparativelv 
short  the  trips  were  not.  By  hind  and  water,  hv  rail 
steamboat,  wagon,  buckboard,  yacht,  row  boat  and'birch- 
bark  canoe,  the  miles  covered  were  over  ten  thousand 
^otnfl„,g  distance;  and  yet  through  it  all  I  was  never 
>11  but  once,  and  the  damage  done  then  was  not  serious 
enough  to  pre\ent  my  returning  home, 

"  Full  of  vigor,  tough  and  glad, 
Feeling  like  a  win- lad," 

and  with  a  capacity  for  work  that  was  well  worth  its  cost 
of  two  months  time. 

And  now  a  parting  word  to  you,  you  man  of  business 
chamed    like   a   felon    in    his   cell,    bereft    of   sunlight' 
harassed  with  care,  tiring  your  brain  over  the  one  nn.d,tv 
problem  of  money-making-or  else  .some  scheme  to  4ve 
off  financial  disaster-'twill  pay  you  to   ponder  on  mv 
words  and  my  experience  and  call  a  halt.     Make  t,p  votir 
niuid    that    money  without    health    is    a    much    greater 
calamity  than   health  without  money.      Leave  vour  desk 
and  turn  your  back  on  the  steaming  streets  of  civilization 
and  your  thoughts  where  Nature  tempts  with  her  trot,t 
streams,    her   mirrored    lakes   and    her  gameal,ounding 
retreats:  to  her  forests,  fragrant  with  balsamic  odors  and 
watered  by  living  streams,  streams  wholesome  with  the 
leechings  of  the  Spruce,  and  Pine,  and  Cedar- Nature's 
own  nectar;   a  draught  of  it  and  you'll  need  no  other 
stimulant.     Then   when  the  days  sport  is  over  and  the 
night  comes,  what  a  revelation  is  in  store  for  vou  I     Cud- 
dled in  your  warm  sleeping  bag,  with  plentv  of  blankets, 
you   "lay    me   down"  on    your   bed    of  spruce  boughs 

147 


■Hi 


whose  odors  play  thick  about  you,  filling  the  air  and 
soothing  you  quickly  into  babe-like  slumber.  In  the 
morning,  spryer  than  the  sun,  you  leave  your  bed  before 
him,  armed  with  a  double-edged  apppetite,  so  keen  and 
new  you  wonder  where  it  came  from.  Trust  me  for  what 
I  tell  you,  but  even  my  words  but  faintly  speak  the  novel 
joys  which  await  you.  Once  more  I  say,  forget  "the 
shop"  and  all  which  that  implies,  and  with  the  poet 
Rovve  you  may  exclaim  to  some  purpose: 

"  Hej^fonc  my  cares  !     I  give  you  to  the  winds." 

THOMAS  MARTINDALE. 


; '« 


lit 


k" 


14S 


